BOTTOMS

Now is a good moment for absurdist satire, and I like BOTTOMS a lot. That didn’t come out right, but I refuse to take it back. Why do I like BOTTOMS? First of all, Marshawn Lynch is it. So, it’s already cooking. Speaking of cooking, it stars the versatile and fabulous Ayo Edebiri (The Bear). The other star is the movie’s co-writer Rachel Sennott. The best part? Imagine a pair of lusty lesbians who dream of getting girls and being ‘qweens’ at their high school. Got it? Now imagine it takes place in a world similar to HEATHERS (1988).

You are so in, aren’t you? Co-writer/director Emma Seligman did that for you.

The story starts in a teenage bedroom—this is a high school movie and that’s the rule. Unless someone starts by getting a locker slammed in their face, which is also mandated. Back to the bedroom, that’s where we meet Josie (Edebiri) and PJ (Sennott), the lusty losers I mentioned earlier. They are losing it because none of the girls at school will date them. I mean, they do stare too much and fumble their meet-cutes at the county fair, so… But, then they save Josie’s dream girl, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), from a bad situation with her ridiculously arrogant football player boyfriend (Nicholas Galitzine, Red, White & Royal Blue). Josie and PJ end up with a bad reputation—juvie bad. And that’s why the principal allows them to start a Fight Club. I’m serious. They start a Fight Club as an extracurricular.

^{(l-r.) Ayo Edebiri stars as Josie, Rachel Sennott as PJ, Zamani Wilder as Annie, Summer Joy Campbell as Sylvie, Havana Rose Liu as Isabel, Kaia Gerber as Brittany and Virginia Tucker as Stella Rebecca in BOTTOMS An Orion Pictures Release Photo credit: Courtesy of ORION Pictures Inc. © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC. All Rights Reserved.}

I enjoyed this movie so much.

What follows can be surmised thusly: a group of edge girls bond while punching each other in the face. Lies are told. Marshawn Lynch shares some inappropriate feelings. A bomb or two explodes. Somebody kisses a girl and they like it. A bunch of people die (so many people expire—it is glorious).

^{(l-r.) Rachel Sennott stars as PJ, Havana Rose Liu as Isabel and Ayo Edebiri as Josie in BOTTOMS An Orion Pictures Release Photo credit: Courtesy of ORION Pictures Inc. © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC. All Rights Reserved.}

BOTTOMS is a wild ride; satirical, profane, unexpected, queer, a tad violent, jaw-dropping, and all about young women finding their power. What I like most is it eschews what I call “hot pink glitter feminism” (that’s not a Barbie reference). This movie isn’t a surface examination that covertly subverts its themes—instead, it defies expectations. This is a film we should talk about.

Deep down in places you shout about at parties, you want to see BOTTOMS, you need to see BOTTOMS. Go now. But stream HEATHERS before you go. Make it a double feature. It could be our new Barbenheimer. HOTTOMS anyone? Make it happen.