'Bottoms' Review: Unhinged Comedic Perfection

Horned-up teenagers can do some crazy shit.

A modern-day Heathers. That is what Emma Seligman’s new raunchy comedy Bottoms is. It is a hilarious take on high school life, where the jokes will make your jaw drop to the floor. You can never expect what will come from this crazy flick, as it has everything. There are grueling fights, men in cages, dickhead football players, teachers tackling feminism, stepfather hatred, pineapple allergy awareness, and so much more. Oh, it’s also very sexual.

Bottoms follows two high school girls who create a fight club to lure in some cheerleaders they want to hookup with. Yet, they don’t know anything about fighting, so they try their best to create a safe space for the girls in the club while still staying true to their mission. It leads to chaos stemming from the leads, Josie and PJ, who take the group to a new level of violence.

A huge reason why this film works so well is that the world feels so unique. The way the hierarchy of high school statuses come together through the visuals is brilliantly absurd. Football players are worshiped throughout the school, getting their own areas in classrooms and the cafeteria, with murals representing them in the Creation of Adam painting. Then, you have Josie and PJ, the self-described untalented lesbians who get slurs written on their lockers and dirty looks from classmates. It is all so well-composed, leaving me wanting even more from this world.

Hollywood, you need to make every single actor in Bottoms a massive star because this is one of the best ensemble casts I have ever seen. Rachel Sennott, who also co-wrote this film, has been slowly taking off after her starring role in Seligman’s previous movie, Shiva Baby. While it isn’t her best performance from what she has delivered so far, she certainly makes a huge impact, providing an abundance of laughs. Her co-star, Ayo Edebiri, has also slowly raised through the stardom ranks, and she continues to showcase that she can be a movie star. The supporting cast is just as great, with Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, and Nicholas Galitzine adding such prominent dynamics that give so much depth to this story. I need to see more of them in bigger movies ASAP.

It is hard not to enjoy Bottoms because it doesn’t hold back. These recent Gen-Z-targeted comedies try so hard to be quirky and slick with their social media-driven jokes and parents who don’t understand them. You don’t get that here, and it’s a breath of fresh air. It is not afraid to hold back and make you uncomfortable. Bottoms brings out the best of comedy, and I can’t express how ecstatic it makes me to see how much it gets right. Sure, it may feel a bit cliche in the script department. However, the final twenty minutes will shock you and wrap up this story with a perfect rainbow ribbon.

I could talk about Bottoms for days, as it is too perfect. I need creatives and studios to take note that this is how you make a modern teen comedy. A shocking yet frivolous tale about self-identity and learning how to be the best you can be. It is a satire-fest that I could watch endlessly. There are no bad vibes here. Just pure chaos.