Although it was presented in a somewhat heightened style, with a jittery tone sometimes recalling horror movies, writer-director Emma Seligman's 2020 debut feature Shiva Baby was ultimately a grounded story about a young woman searching for direction while navigating a messy love life. Seligman's follow-up, Bottoms, reunites her with Shiva Baby star Rachel Sennott, but it's otherwise a complete departure from her previous film. It's a goofy, raunchy comedy almost completely divorced from reality, with a cartoonish setting and absurd characters.
It's also very funny. But fans of Shiva Baby should adjust their expectations for another coming-of-age comedy with Sennott as a queer protagonist. Sennott, who co-wrote the screenplay with Seligman, stars as high school senior PJ, who along with her best friend Josie (The Bear's Ayo Edebiri) is stuck at the low end of the social hierarchy. Both characters are quick to note that they're not ostracized because they're gay, but rather because they're "ugly and untalented" — their sexuality isn't what's holding them back.
Instead, like protagonists in decades of teen comedies past, both PJ and Josie are horny, awkward weirdos, crushing on seemingly unattainable girls and unable to form coherent sentences when they attempt to talk to their objects of affection. Through a convoluted set of circumstances, they find themselves in charge of what they've billed as a self-defense class for female students, although PJ views it simply as a way to get physically close to the popular cheerleaders with whom she and Josie want to hook up.
It's a queer take on the familiar teen-comedy device of the characters' quest to lose their virginity, and Seligman knowingly draws from teen touchstones like Revenge of the Nerds and American Pie. Tonally, Bottoms is closer to the surrealism of dark comedy Heathers or David Wain's Wet Hot American Summer, set in a high school where football players never change out of their uniforms, the cross-town rivals are literally out for blood, and classes end just minutes after they begin, once a scene has served its comedic purpose.
That level of ridiculousness can sometimes make it difficult to get emotionally invested in the relationships, including the friendship between PJ and Josie and the burgeoning romance between Josie and her longtime crush Isabel (Havana Rose Liu). PJ in particular becomes so abrasive in her efforts to land gorgeous cheerleader Brittany (Kaia Gerber) that she sometimes seems like the movie's villain, but Sennott is so charming and likable that she mostly smooths over the character's obnoxiousness.
Even when Bottoms goes so far over the top that it enters the realm of complete nonsense, the humor never falters, and some of the funniest moments are the most unbelievable. Sennott and Edebiri anchor the movie with their strong chemistry and odd-couple dynamic, but the supporting cast is full of amusing performances, including Red, White & Royal Blue's Nicholas Galitzine as the egotistical star quarterback and former Seattle Seahawk Marshawn Lynch as the club's surprisingly progressive faculty adviser.
Ruby Cruz also shines in the less showy role of PJ and Josie's long-suffering sidekick Hazel, who's apparently the only person lower in the social order than they are, and who not-so-secretly keeps the club running while they're making fools of themselves in pursuit of sexual conquests. She's the McLovin figure in Seligman's riff on Superbad, and she brings the movie back to reality for its twistedly heartwarming conclusion. As screwed up as PJ and Josie may be, their salacious project actually celebrates female empowerment and queer solidarity in the end, and that goes for the vulgar, chaotic movie, too. ♦
BOTTOMS
