Bottoms (15)

Best friends PJ and Josie are social outcasts at Rockbridge Falls High School because they embody the holy trifecta of misfitdom: "gay, untalented and ugly/" When rumours circulate that PJ and Josie spent the summer in a juvenile detention centre, the best friends capitalise on this undeserved fame by establishing a self-defence class for girls with the backing of teacher Mr G. Lessons morph into fight club brawls and PJ and Josie gravitate closer to their respective crushes.

LondonNet Film Review

Bottoms (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Self-defence is the best form of attack in a raucous and gleefully absurd comedy co-written by director Emma Seligman and actor Rachel Sennott, which wholeheartedly embraces the double meaning of its title for audiences in the know. Bottoms happily shares a locker room with two class presidents of high school hilarity, Heathers and Booksmart, appropriating cynicism and macabre humour from the former and LGBTQ-inclusive sisterly solidarity from the latter. Casting late 20-something actors as teenagers feeds into the film’s spiky insanity which includes home-made bombs, attempted murder and a predominantly female ensemble performing acts of aggression on each other…

An unapologetically profane, off-kilter script earns extra credit by pummelling characters to bloody pulps a la Fight Club under the auspices of teaching female students how to protect themselves from the harassment and unwanted attention that awaits them when they graduate. Although Seligman’s picture falls shy of the top grades posted by its inspirations, this pitch-black ode to friendship merrily pushes boundaries of good taste and punches political correctness in the solar plexus. The battle of the sexes declares full-blown war and Bottoms comes out on top.

Best friends PJ (Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are social outcasts at Rockbridge Falls High School because they embody the holy trifecta of misfitdom. “They hate us for being gay, untalented and ugly,” PJ casually reminds her ride-or-die confidante, who is desperate to lose her virginity. Both girls have crushes. Josie is smitten with Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), girlfriend of oafish star quarterback Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), while PJ only has eyes for statuesque golden girl Brittany (Kaia Gerber). When rumours circulate that PJ and Josie spent the summer in a juvenile detention centre, the best friends capitalise on this undeserved fame by establishing a self-defence class for girls with the backing of teacher Mr G (Marshawn Lynch).

Fellow outcast Hazel (Ruby Cruz) volunteers to become club secretary and fearful classmates including Annie (Zamani Wilder), Stella-Rebecca (Virginia Tucker) and Sylvie (Summer Joy Campbell) answer the call to arms. Self-defence lessons morph into fight club brawls. Unfortunately, Jeff and second-in-command Tim (Miles Fowler) feel threatened by the heady scent of female empowerment and they choose a blunt force approach to undermine the club’s popularity.

Bottoms is the best kind of bonkers, handcuffed to a zany central premise that puts subtlety into detention from the opening scene. Sennott and Edebiri embody infuriating, hysterically misguided yet adorable heroines, who know they would be relegated to comic relief in another school. Bloodletting is copious – the film’s 15 certificate is deserved – and Seligman pulls no punches or kicks to get her characters through an intense physical education class that considers black eyes and cut lips as badges of honour. The Breakfast Club To Death, if you will.

– Jo Planter