Two years ago, Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott burst out of the indie comedy circuit and onto the Hollywood scene with ‘Shiva Baby,’ one of the most exciting directorial debuts of the year; a riveting disaster-piece equally hilarious and anxiety-inducing. Now, with a bigger budget at their disposal and their longtime friend & 2023’s breakout star Ayo Edebiri joining up, their vision is exploded in scale to unhinged and hysterical results in ‘Bottoms.’
Somewhere in the suburbs of New Orleans, at a brazen teen dystopia called Rockbridge Falls High School, lesbian outcasts PJ (Sennott) and Josie (Edebiri) are desperate to hook up with their cheerleader crushes before they graduate. To that end, the hapless duo stumbles into a series of lies that culminates in them leading a “Self-Defense Club” (read: fight club) for the young women of their school - crushes included. For the first time ever, these two losers are popular. But they’re sitting on a ticking time bomb of deception.
What transpires is nothing that, on the surface level, looks anything like your average American high school. The walls are plastered with athlete pin-ups, class periods are five minutes long, the mascot is anatomically correct. Seligman rejects the paradigm of realism, bypassing online bickering over what passes for “authenticity” in teen media today. They aren’t interested here in creating a world that LOOKS real. Rather, she and her cast and crew have created a universe that FEELS real by blowing up every trope, fear, expectation and suspicion into an absurd, maximalist nightmare of a school. Being a teen is feeling everything to the extreme. In ‘Bottoms,’ more-so than any high school movie in recent years, it’s all on the screen.
The looming threat of violence, the sexuality, the social cliques, the school’s misplaced priorities... all are dialed up to 10 and screamed into reality. At Rockbridge Falls, you don’t just think the whole school sees you as “ugly and untalented.” That’s how the principal calls you to the office over the intercom.
This approach may be off-putting to some, especially in this current realism-fixated era of Hollywood, with filmmakers nervously glancing over their shoulders in case an eager YouTuber is waiting in the shadows to pick apart the “logic” of their narrative. But shrugging off those bonds is ‘Bottoms’’ secret weapon. Despite the ridiculous sensationalism of it all, the raw emotions on display hit all the harder, because we’re seeing them play out to the exaggerated degree that they feel.
Seligman’s vision, of course, couldn’t come to life without one of the best comedy casts assembled in a long time. Sennott and Edebiri are perfect leads, pulling off every raw, cringe-inducing emotional leap with precision. Havana Rose Liu stakes a claim amongst the all-time great high school movie crushes with a layered turn as the unpredictable Isabel. Nicholas Galitzine never leaves a spare minute to catch a breath between laughs as the unhinged, ego-tripping quarterback. Ruby Cruz’ gullible chaos-gremlin Hazel makes an inarguable case that Disney canceling ‘Willow’ was a mistake. And a delightful Marshawn Lynch improvving his way to starrdom off the field steals every scene he wonders into.
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world that this gang of NYU alumni have exploded onto the screen. And for all its absurdity, it’s one of the most authentic works of teen media in years. By dismissing the pressure to keep up appearances and play by the rules of “the real world,” it’s free to embrace the wild emotional turmoil that is being young and on the outside in America. Because that - beyond the limitations of what can merely be seen - is the truest story of all.
‘Bottoms’ is still playing in theaters nationwide and is now available to rent or buy online. Catch it while you can!
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