Film Review: BOTTOMS (2023): Emma Seligman’s Film is a Zeitgeist Comedy That Speaks Volumes

Bottoms Review

Bottoms (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Emma Seligman, written by Rachel Sennott and Emma Seligman and starring Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, Nicholas Galitzine, Miles Fowler, Marshawn Lynch, Dagmara Dominczyk, Punkie Johnson, Zamani Wilder, Summer Joy Campbell, Virginia Tucker, Wayne Pere, Toby Nichols, Cameron Stout, Ted Ferguson and Bruno Rose.

Filmmaker Emma Seligman has delivered one of the year’s most important and groundbreaking films and the surprise is that it is, indeed, a comedy. Bottoms is a zeitgeist movie that could help define the current era of confusion for new generations of teenage students who are trying to find themselves in a world sprinkled with plenty of insanity and uncertainty. Luckily, Seligman and co-writer Rachel Sennott (also the star of the show) have carefully walked a tightrope with material that could have been offensive and turned it into accessible, thought-provoking fun. It’s one of the year’s best pictures.

Sennott and Ayo Edebiri play two students/best friends named PJ and Josie who tell others that they are straight out of juvenile hall. Both PJ and Josie have desires for other girls in their school: Brittany (Kaia Gerber) and Isabel (Havana Rose Liu). PJ and Josie feel like ugly outcasts but want nothing more than to date Brittany and Isabel. When Isabel tries to get away from her athletic boyfriend, Josie taps the guy with the front of her car and he exaggerates a much bigger injury.

PJ and Josie come up with a plan to start a self-defense class which comes to be known as a fight club. This club is conceived by the girls to try to get close to Brittany and Isabel. PJ and Josie enlist a disgruntled teacher, Mr. G (a scene-stealing, energetic Marshawn Lynch) to vouch for the group. He agrees and is told he doesn’t have to be there that much, just once in a while. Some girls of various levels of popularity show up for the self-defense classes, including Annie (Zamani Wilder) and Stella-Rebecca (Virginia Tucker).

There is a plot line to Bottoms which follows a buddy movie type of formula right at the outset but initially breaks free of that formula by becoming a truly distinct story of what happens when lies fuel an idea. Those lies ultimately help create a club, however, which actually has some validity to it. But, PJ and Josie didn’t need it for answers regarding their romantic crushes. Or did they? Josie and Isabel start to create some chemistry together while PJ and Brittany start to connect on a different level. The fabrication of the necessity of a fight club will ultimately become a problem until it is proven that there is a real need for the self-defense group.

There are great moments in this film right from the word “go.” I liked the scenes with the school janitor coming over to the main characters’ lockers to roll blue paint over the crude expressions other classmates write about them. Even the janitor becomes upset when he finds out the truth about how the fight club was formed.

At the heart of the movie are Sennott’s and Edebiri’s outstanding and funny performances. Sennott’s characterization is so precise and unique that it makes Alicia Silverstone’s role in Clueless pale in comparison if one wanted to compare Bottoms to past similar films which defined their generation. Sennott and Edebiri are a beautifully matched pair of lead stars who play off each other with wild precision that fuels the movie and keeps it running like a well-oiled machine.

Ruby Cruz plays the confused but earnest Hazel Callahan whose mom (Dagmara Dominczyk) is having an affair with the guy Josie’s romantic crush is dating. Hazel acts as a catalyst to the plot and is well portrayed by Cruz. Hazel plays a key part in the story as the plot develops and a student named Tim (Miles Fowler) tries to prove that the fight club is bogus, and that PJ and Josie are “frauds.” The fact that PJ and Josie’s group actually isn’t a fraud makes the whole premise at hand so much more compelling than it could have been with less-stellar writing.

Bottoms ends with a sports game at the school that will utilize the skills the fight club members have learned. There is plenty of hilarity that ensues during these concluding scenes and the soundtrack is peppered with great, meaningful music such as a song titled “party 4 u” by Charli XCX. One of Sennott’s previous films, Bodies Bodies Bodies also used Charli XCX’s music as well.

While Sennott gets most of the laughs, Edebiri’s work also provides a lot of the heartbeat of the film with her multi-faceted performance. This film is full of zany situations which are surprisingly relatable and will most likely make audiences fully invested in the material at hand.

Bottoms may make one wonder what director Emma Seligman will do next and if she’s going to make more great movies after this one. However, we need to take a moment and recognize the profound movie that Bottoms truly is. Perhaps, this is actually going to turn out to be Seligman’s masterpiece. If David Fincher’s Fight Club gave men a reason to find solace in their confusing lives back in the 1990’s, Bottoms goes a step further and could just appeal to every demographic across the board. It’s a great film.

Rating: 9.5/10

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