Mark Harrison | On 26, Jan 2024

Director: Emma Seligman
Cast: Ayo Edebiri, Rachel Sennott, Ruby Cruz, Nicholas Galitzine, Marshawn Lynch
Certificate: 15

The pitch for Bottoms isn’t so different from bawdy high-school comedies of yesteryear – two unpopular youngsters start a club and tell a lot of lies in order to lose their virginities to hot girls and maybe raise their social status along the way. What sets “ugly, untalented gays” PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) apart is that their after-school club is a girls-only fight club, masquerading as a self-defence class.

Produced by Elizabeth Banks, this wilfully silly coming-of-age comedy deliberately evokes a whole bunch of dumb-as-balls dude-centric touchstones, but with women leading the charge for a change. Reuniting Shiva Baby director Emma Seligman and star-producer Sennott (who also co-wrote this one), it represents a complete tonal 180 from their previous movie, but it does feel like an escalation of that film’s belligerence in a more mainstream style.

Broadly speaking, it’s a gender-flipped spoof of Fight Club – David Fincher’s film comes up more than once and the girls swiftly go from punching each other in the school gym to Project Mayhem-like shenanigans as the action ramps up. As a comedy, its touchstones are more varied – a diner sign tips a wink to the conversion-camp cult-classic But I’m A Cheerleader and, tonally, its closest neighbour is probably Not Another Teen Movie.

Sennott and Edebiri are an established double act from TV’s Taking the Stage and Ayo and Rachel Are Single and they’re terrific here too – respectively, their characters are unaccountably confident and relentlessly anxious, which is a powerful comic combination. On another note, it’s bonkers that two of 2023’s best comedy movies feature Edebiri blagging her way into teaching kids to fight, but this makes a savoury companion to the sweetness of Theater Camp.

They lead by example and the supporting cast gets in on the fun too. Ruby Cruz is the keen, organised foil to PJ and Josie’s chaotic improvisations, Havana Rose Liu brings an unpredictable edge to the unwitting love interest, and Marshawn Lynch is hilarious as a recently divorced history teacher who makes a useful but disinterested ally.

Meanwhile, Nicholas Galitzine and Miles Fowler are to this what Ryan Gosling is to Barbie – even in a female-focused film, their “dudes rock” energy is so perfectly pitched that they threaten to run away with the movie.

The comedy goes to deliriously daft heights almost from the get-go and keeps mounting more silliness on top. If it were only a throwaway laugh-fest, that would be plenty to be getting on with, but Seligman also beds in a timely message about the pitfalls of performative feminism and the importance of real solidarity. It’s got all that and punching and explosives and… well, you’ll see what else the riotous third act has in store.

In a pretty good year for comedy movies, Bottoms is a scrappy, flighty contender, but it’s a knockout all the same. With a cracking cast of young stars and its unflinching approach to comic violence, it’s irresistible dumb fun that keeps you laughing, guiltily or otherwise.

Add to Watchlist