Like any good teen sex comedy, Bottoms delivers on its promise of hilarious scenes within the movie and leaves the audience laughing until the very end. Drawing inspiration from the classic high school comedies from the 1990s and ’80s, as well as Fight Club, Bottoms reinvents the genre while paying tribute to the films that paved the way for it. The best moments in Bottoms come from the self-awareness of the script and the flawless improvisation of the performers.
Emma Seligman, who made their directorial debut with Shiva Baby, directed Bottoms as well as co-wrote the movie with star Rachel Sennott. Seligman, Sennot, and costar Ayo Edebiri all met at New York University and have become frequent creative collaborators since then. Ebebiri is best known for her role as Sydney in The Bear. The Bear has recently been renewed for season 3. Each of the creatives brings their flavor of comedy through the performances, writing, and direction that makes Bottoms the fantastic revival of the raunchy high school genre with a satirical twist.
10 Teen Sex Comedies To Watch After Bottoms
If you enjoyed Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott’s soon-to-be cult favorite Bottoms, these classic and contemporary teen sex comedies are worth a watch.
10 Josie’s Rant About Her Future
Before hitting Jeff with her car.
The rant is given by Edebiri’s character Josie, and describes her doomed future that forces her into a loveless marriage with a man is a perfect establishing moment for Josie. Edebiri’s delivery is hilarious, as the moment feels exactly like a stress-induced spiral that comes on the heels of an embarrassing exchange with a crush. Part of why it works is because of how genuine Josie is as she describes increasingly detailed and outlandish insights about her horrible future. The moment is capped by the twist of her crush, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) getting into her car.
9 The Car Exploding
Hazel’s foray into the destruction of property.
The comedy of Bottoms is so refreshing because it introduces throwaway jokes, like Hazel’s (Ruby Cruz) penchant for pyrotechnics, and brings them to extreme conclusions. This comes to a head when Hazel makes a bomb and straps it to the bottom of Jeff’s (Nicholas Galitzine) car after he admits to cheating on Isabel. In any other movie, this would be a dramatic and irreversible action, but in Bottom‘s, it feels like the natural escalation of the plot line while being surprising enough to be funny.
8 Josie Telling The Club She And PJ Were In Juvie
Claiming that they had to fight for their lives.
At first, Josie is against PJ’s (Sennott) idea of starting the fight club, but she soon gets on board when she sees how many points it gets her with Isabel. She takes this too far when she doubles down on the rumor that she and PJ went to juvie over the summer, and that’s why they’re qualified to run a fight club. In another great monologue from Edebiri, Josie explains how they learned to defend themselves in graphic detail, all of which the audience knows is a lie.
It’s obviously a lie, but part of the charm of the Bottoms universe is that every character is on board with the magical realism of the world. The belief that these two girls were really in a juvenile detention center, even though there’s no proof or reason for this to be true, doesn’t matter because the rumor mill of high school is the letter of the law. The way Josie blatantly makes things up to win Isabel’s affection calls back to early scenes with Josie that show what a storyteller she is.
Bottoms Cast & Character Guide
2023’s raunchy teen comedy Bottoms succeeds due to it dynamic cast of characters played by experienced veterans and relatively new actors.
7 Mr. G Telling Off Josie And PJ
He puts them in their place in the most convoluted way possible.
Former football player Marshawn Lynch was an excellent choice to play the oblivious teacher Mr. G, who ends up being the advisor for the fight club. When Josie and PJ’s deception is uncovered, he tells them that all the feminism he learned while advising the club is gone and that he doesn’t support them anymore. The extremity of the reaction is on par with how high-stakes the girls’ betrayal is, making it all the funnier. It’s Lynch’s best moment of the movie and illustrates what a strong comedic actor he is, which elevates PJ and Josie’s reactions to his lecture.
6 The Fight Club Montage
The young women learn to fight and get pretty beat in the process.
There are a couple of great montages throughout Bottoms, but the best is when the club is learning to fight and take turns going at it in the ring. The way the action is choreographed is perfectly clumsy and hilarious, and the different pair-ups between the women subtly move the story forward, especially when Josie and Isabel share a moment during their fight. While the action itself is funny, it’s also satisfying to see each of the characters slowly get better at fighting and build their skills, as well as enjoying getting beat up.
5 Everyone’s Reasons For Joining The Club
To feel safe or get revenge on the people in their lives.
Josie and PJ’s motivations for starting the club might be just to get close to the girls they like, but the other members have genuine causes for wanting to know how to defend themselves. Each gets more intense and outlandish, and the girls throw out their reasons and ideas. Stella-Rebecca (Virginia Tucker) says she’s going to “reverse stalk” her stalker, and then Sylvie (Summer Joy Campbell) says she’s going to do serious damage to her stepdad. The rest of the club is predictably surprised, but they move on and get to the action.
4 Jeff Getting Hit By The Car – Then Milking His Injury
Subverting the high school football hero trope.
Nicholas Galitzine was in Red, White, and Royal Blue, as well as many other projects. However, his performance as Jeff in Bottoms might be the best of his career. This is because the role has so much to offer as a satirical take on the trope of the high school football hero, who’s often the love interest in teen comedies. In this case, he’s both an antagonist and a pathetic figure the audience almost feels bad for. He acts like his leg breaks when Josie taps him with her car, demonstrating his function in the rest of the movie.
3 Brittany Realizing She’s Not Gay
After seeing PJ and Hazel kiss.
In a misguided attempt to cause a distraction, PJ and Hazel kiss in front of the entire school and realize they have real feelings for each other. However, this causes the cheerleaders watching to come to realizations about their sexualities. Stella-Rebecca says that she is gay, and Isabel is thinking about how she misses Josie. Conversely, Brittany (Kaia Gerber) has her straightness cemented for her and makes a poignant comment about just how straight she is. While she had rejected PJ earlier because she’s straight, it’s at this moment that she feels sure and announces it to the world.
Bottoms’ Confusing Timeline Explained: What Year The Hit Comedy Is Set In
Irreverent and full of snark, Bottoms is one of film’s more recent sure-to-be cult classics, but it boasts a pretty confusing timeline and setting.
2 The Final Fight Scene
Using the lessons they learned in fight club to destroy the rival team.
The ending of Bottoms includes a brutal, all-out war between the girls in the fight club and the rival football team who try to poison Jeff to win. If there are any doubts about what the tone is, they’re gone by the final action sequence, as the rival team is killed by the girls, and not metaphorically. It’s a ridiculous blend of genuine catharsis and reconciliation between characters juxtaposed with teenage boys dying around them. In the final moments, what just happened is partially acknowledged, but the high schoolers are just happy to have won.
1 Josie Trying To Talk To Isabel At The Carnival
Fumbling for words in front of the prettiest girls in school.
The opening of Bottoms establishes the characters, sets the thematic tone of the film, and immediately makes the motivations obvious, which is everything the first act of a movie should do. Outside of being structurally effective, the movie gets the audience laughing from the start, with the scene of PJ and Josie getting ready for the carnival and fantasizing about Isabel and Brittany, only to come face to face with them once they get there.
PJ’s false confidence is cringe-inducing, but the interaction is made worse by Josie’s attempts to talk to Isabel. The embarrassment Josie feels pours out of the screen, and the fact that Isabel becomes interested in her later on is a little astounding but also endearing. From Josie tipping an imaginary hat at Isabel to rambling for way too long about how great she looks, the scene is made great by Edebiri’s performance and shows how far the girls have to climb to reach their goals.
Bottoms
*Availability in US
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
- Release Date
- August 25, 2023
- Director
- Emma Seligman
- Runtime
- 92 Minutes
- Writers
- Emma Seligman , Rachel Sennott
- Studio(s)
- Orion Pictures , Brownstone Productions
