Bottoms | SXSW 2023 Film Review

If there is one thing the LGBTQIA+ community has not had an overabundance of in film, it is a teen sex comedy ripe with tension, fight clubs, and Marshawn Lynch. Director Emma Seligman and her co-writer-star Rachel Sennott aim to amend that error with Bottoms, a tale of two queer women intend on bedding cheerleaders or anyone else they can before high school ends and they are left with zeros on the sexual conquest test. In other words, whatever you thought Bottoms was going to be, it’s time to stuff those ideas back in your mental locker.

PJ and Josie (Rachel Sennott and The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri) are two lesbian teens determined to lose their respective virginities before the end of their senior year, despite having the game of a 65 year-old dock worker. It is not difficult to see why the duo struggle, as they are constantly harassed and bullied by the school football team and others. Everything comes to a head one night at the local fair when Josie’s crush, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), is forced to deal with her jackass boyfriend and star football player as he chases Isabel right into Josie’s arms. Well, almost.

Everything goes sideways, and one ridiculous bump of a car later lands PJ and Josie in the principal’s office awaiting certain disciplinary action. With the threat of expulsion looming over them, the twosome launch into an absurd need for a self-defense class for girls, and the principal nervously agrees. Once PJ and Josie garner the approval of the coolest history teacher high school has ever seen (Marshawn Lynch), they gather up female recruits and basically turn it all into Fight Club, proceeding to kick each other’s ass for months. Wouldn’t you know it? Their odd bomb-obsessed friend, as well as Isabel and her best friend – and PJ’s secret love, Brittany, come along for the ride.

Bottoms sets out from the gate to tweak the tried-and-true male sex comedy for the rest of the modern world. Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott are not trailblazing nor jumpstarting a new genre, it already exists. Instead, they are delivering a similar platter of hijinks and debauchery, with a queer twist. How many sex comedies have we seen where the girls are essentially dimbulb chunks of meat? Welcome to Bottoms’ football team. Though much like those other sex comedies, how idiotic these yahoos are becomes a bit eye-rolling as we go. Likewise, with trying to score at every given opportunity. It turns out, getting laid in high school is a pretty universal concept. Adding a fight club which incites the potential for a small-town bloodbath? Well, that is just the icing on the cake.

Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri are a dynamic duo, walking in lock-step for 90 minutes as besties with completely differing motives. Sennott’s PJ wants to have intercourse with Brittany, sure, but she also wants to inflict a little visceral damage along the way. Sennott’s intensity and quick-draw delivery amplifies PJ as the unpredictable of the two. Josie, on the other hand, is the softer, more guilt-ridden of the pair. Let’s face it, best friends need an instigator and a conscience, and Josie wears all of the latter. Edebiri’s career has been on fire as of late, and Bottoms should continue that trend, as her take on Josie packs real warmth and depth. Best of all, both Sennott and Edebiri compliment each other nicely.

One aspect of Bottoms I especially appreciate is how well-rounded the supporting cast is. Even in a film stacked with caricatures, Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu, and Kaia Gerber are injected with enough humanity to rise above standard teen fodder. Speaking of supporting characters, did everyone else know how goddamn funny Marshawn Lynch is? If you didn’t, you are about to.

The direction on Bottoms is fast-paced, with nary a moment nor an opportunity for a clever retort wasted. The writing is sharp, mildly insane, and always entertaining. This is not high art, but no one asked it to be. Bottoms reminds me of classic comedies like American Pie and Superbad; movies meant to entertain first, and be relatable second. Most of my life I have seen myself and my straight high school friends reflected in those frames, refusing to apologize for their horny disposition. It’s about time we saw the queer community get to indulge in their own hysterical depravities.

Listen to our full review on our SXSW 2023 episode of The Hollywood Outsider podcast: