good.film
a year ago
Why should I see Bottoms?
This dark satire takes the classic high-school buddy sex comedy and gender-flips it on its head. If you’re up for a brazen exploration of modern-day queer representation, Bottoms is your next go see.
What social causes does the film explore?
On the menu this week is Bottoms. Weird title, so let’s break down the recipe: two high school BFFs. Unpopular nerds. They’re desperate to get laid, so they cook up a scheme to land the school cheerleaders. And it all goes horribly wrong. So far, that’s every 80s movie ever, right?
Nope. Turns out Bottoms is more 2023 than the iPhone 15 and the term “cozzie livs”. First off, our heroes (PJ and Josie) are girls. And the objects of their desire are also girls (still cheerleaders though – some things never change). And their genius ruse to get closer to them is a literal fight club… sorry, “self-defence class”.
Caught your attention yet? Girl, SAME. And we haven’t even mentioned the tagline on the poster: “a movie about empowering women (the hot ones).”
If you ask us? Hell no. Two things are clear from the outset: that Seligman and Sennott (who collabed on Shiva Baby, and co-wrote here) give zero f**ks about holding back on their edgy brand of queer-driven dark humour. And second, that Bottoms isn’t just a queer-themed teen sex comedy – it’s a satire of the entire genre.
It takes a few beats to really get the semi-surreal vibe of this. Like how the jocks wear their full football uniform at all times: in class, at parties, and even emerging after sex still wearing shoulder pads. There’s also meta moments when Seligman brings us in on the joke - like when PJ and Josie sit down for class, their teacher shares some key info, and the bell immediately rings, to their visible confusion: “Wait, that’s class?” Yep - because that scene is done.
There’s also virtually no adults in the entire film, and the ones that show up are selfish, morally questionable roadblocks. We never meet Josie or PJ’s parents, and their friend Hazel’s Mom is busy bedding every player on the football team one by one. Their teacher is an inappropriate over-sharer who’s going through a divorce, and the principal is the kinda guy who announces, “Could the ugly, untalented gays please report to the principal’s office?”
The AWOL adults are a not so subtle comment on the fact that younger people increasingly feel like the generation that’s been left to grapple with deep existential crises. Things like, you know, the planet being burned to a crisp by a climate gone haywire (and AI Terminators gone even more haywire). Josie and PJ are already persona non grata to anyone cool, so the lack of strong adulting has the effect of isolating them further - especially from anyone who’d normally play a mentor role. It leaves them to their own devices, and the spectacularly poor (but hilarious) choice of starting a fight club for women.
One of the more clever lines is how they sell their “self-defence club” concept by repeating that they’ve noticed “a serious lack of solidarity at this school”... and the powers-that-be are too afraid of rocking the women’s equality boat to turn them down. But the real reason is way more fizzy and basic: PJ & Josie just wanna press their bodies up against their cheerleader crushes, Brittany and Isabel.
That’s a pretty spiky moral grey area: would we be okay with boys plotting to touch their female crushes, like those high school movies from decades ago? Or are those standards out the window now because – remember the crispy planet thing – everything is f**ked anyway? There’s a sense that Seligman & Sennott are eagerly leaning into any discomfort they might create by saying, hey, anything is fair game now. Equality is a handy tool, and PJ weaponises it to get exactly what she and Josie want.
Another sticky aspect that goes unquestioned is Brittany and Isabel’s own sexuality. Like every teen movie ever, the “dream girls” are completely uninterested in our dorky normal heroes. But is that because they’re not attracted to them, or not attracted to women full stop? It’s a key factor, but Josie and PJ rush into their hasty plan without bothering to find out if their crushes are actually gay or straight – which has ramifications further into the film.
All this layers Bottoms with more depth – and deliberate moral poking & prodding – than a churned-out, studio high school flick. And lastly, it’s important to note that Josie & PJ aren’t rendered as outcasts because they’re gay – they’re outcasts because they’re unpopular losers. They just happen to be gay on top. Or in this case, on the very bottom.
"I was tired of seeing lesbians and queer people in time periods where we aren't allowed to go after each other in an unapologetic way. I’d rather just see gay characters being gay or queer, and not having that be the plot.”
- Emma Seligman, writer-director
Short answer, there’s a few gasps to be had. When the fight club actually starts to bond and the girls decide to share more of their feelings, PJ kicks off by bluntly asking who’s been raped. When no-one responds, she adds, “Grey area stuff counts too” and Seligman cuts wide… to the entire group raising their hands.
It’s an audacious example of the post-post-modern meta humour that courses through new voices like Seligman & Sennott’s. They grip tight to a newly modern comic sensibility: one that doesn’t bat an eyelid at breaching the most shocking admissions in the most deadpan way possible. Your stomach flips with surprise – but really it’s excitement – as you ask yourself, Did they really just say that? Like a high dive into a cold plunge, it feels like a bracing thrill.
“Springing off real issues women, girls and LGBTQ+ people face, “Bottoms” is an eccentric little satire: simultaneously relevant and irreverent.”
- Olivia McCormack, Washington Post
“Girls are rarely allowed to use their sex drive as openly as Seligman does here. And the way she plays with violence is gleefully amazing. Some sequences in "Bottoms" are unforgettable.”
- Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert dot com
“Moves freely between the surreal, silly, and violent, but it’s never better than when it’s testing the boundaries of taste when it comes to empowerment and misogyny.”
- Alison Willmore, Vulture
Fully on board, or disagree big time? We’d love to hear your take. Leave a review to share your thoughts with the good.film community!
In the hyper-woke, cancel-frenzy landscape we’re all battling through, Bottoms doesn’t just call out sugar-coating and straight-washing. It shouts it out. Which is what makes the movie so startling and refreshing and funny. To paraphrase Katy Perry, it feels so wrong, but also… it just feels so right.
Sure, it’s edgy. It’s the kind of movie that spits blood at you with a grin. It’s also playing with fire: the hot cheerleaders are there to satisfy the girl gays, not the male gaze, but they’re still being objectified. Are we sure we’re allowed to count that as progress? The saving grace is that the shocks of black humour and comic violence feel earned, not gratuitous, because it’s clear that lesbian filmmaker Emma Seligman has a representative story to tell.
If you’re still not convinced, put it this way: Heathers crawled so Mean Girls could walk, so Bottoms could run. And it might just run off with the title of 2023’s Riskiest Comedy. In a year that saw Cocaine Bear, Joy Ride and No Hard Feelings hit our screens, that’s a pretty sweet crown to claim… especially for a pair of ugly, untalented gays ; )
When is Bottoms movie coming out? Bottoms is now showing in cinemas around Australia. Buy a Good Tix to see the film for less and support a good cause!