I’m a big fan of director Emma Seligman’s last film, Shiva Baby, about a young Jewish woman who has various Encounters with her ex-lover and current lover. When I heard she had a new film out at Sundance 2023 I was instantly intrigued. Her latest film Bottoms is coming out this week in New York and LA and here are my thoughts.

PJ (Rachel Sennott, Shiva Baby, Bodies Bodies, Bodies) and Josie (Ajo Edebiri, The Bear S1 & 2, Theater Camp) are two high school girls who are in their senior year. They have decided that they are both going to get the girls that they like to fall in love with them. By a confluence of events, they end up starting a fight club to teach girls self-defense. Also to get the attention of the two girls they like.

Coming of Age films have a lot of different kinds of permutations.  Some can be more dramatic and others like American Pie or Superbad have a more comedic nature to them. That’s what Bottoms is more akin to. The title refers to kids at the bottom of their ecosystem. So to get what they want these girls fib a little and attract the two beautiful cheerleaders, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and  Brittany (Kiaa Jordan Gerber, whom they want to date.  This isn’t the most outlandish thing I’ve seen in a coming-of-age film before. 

With this film being set in a high school it makes sense that the cast is pretty big. Some of them are an ex-NFL player, the Seattle Seahawks, Marshawn Lynch as a teacher Mr. GRuby Cruz, one of the members of the fight and close friend of the two main characters Hazel, and Nicholas Galitzine, seen previously in Red White and Royal Blue as a self-centered egotistical football player Jeff. Everyone in the cast was very funny and added nuance and a nice touch to the two main characters.

Even though this movie had a rather tongue-in-cheek look at lesbian relationships it had a serious message in it as well. The undertone of bullying, manipulation, and abuse by men and other high schoolers was very prevalent.  As someone who has endured bullying, I can say it’s a very serious topic. This film uses a sexy connotation to somewhat hide the real problem that is going on in high schools all over the country. Sexual orientation is a hard thing to grasp and sometimes kids don’t know their real identity until much later in life. This movie more or less glosses over this very real topic in society. I wish it took the subject more seriously.

Despite the serious undertones, this movie was pretty funny and mostly enjoyable. It was a different take on the coming-of-age film. One I rather liked. The cast including but most especially Sennett and Edebiri were all very good. These two women are making a name for themselves and are raising eyebrows whenever they step on set and in front of the camera. Seligman’s direction was fine but it wasn’t anything to write home about. This was a fine little film that high schoolers of today will probably like. Hopefully, they’ll get the message hidden within it. 

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen