TL;DR – It races right up to the line of being a parody without crossing it, a bunch of laughs even if not everything lands.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit scenes.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Bottoms Review –

After mainly being obliterated, the R-rated teenage comedy has returned in recent years, which means a whole new generation gets to have their EuroTrip moment. But can a more mature comedy focused on teenagers work in this new world? Well, that is the question we are looking at today.

So to set the scene, friends PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are at the bottom of the social picking ladder at Rockbridge Falls High School. Even more so when they run over the star quarterback Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine) a month out from the big game against rivals Huntington High. But when you are on the bottom, there is nowhere else to go but up, and it is in that moment that the girls arrange a fight club. On the surface, it is all about empowering the women of the School, but in reality, it is all about getting laid.  

Bottoms is a bit of an odd duck because it is played both completely sincerely, but also it is in spitting distance of parodies like Not Another Teen Movie. This creates an odd vibe that should not have worked, but I think it does because the cast is clearly game for everything that is thrown at them. This film goes to some crazy places, and that is just with the fight club. When we get out to the supporting cast, it gets even wilder. But it never flings off the rails, even though it came close many times in that third-act explosion.

Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri make a great team with some fantastic banter, and that is important because the whole film hangs on their friendship. Even though this is a very modern interpretation of a teen comedy, it does still follow the same narrative beats that you would have expected of any film from this genre. You know going into this that there is a big secret, so of course, it would get blurted out at the worst time possible. However, even though it is quite silly, you can always feel the production behind it where it is needed. Remember when films actually lit their characters well?   

The whole supporting cast is a riot, with a big call out to Marshawn Lynch, who continues to show astounding comedic timing that always makes me laugh. There are also nods to teen shows all over the place, with my favourite being a character heavily inspired by The OC. The comedy nature of this film is not going to be for everyone. Indeed, an R-rated comedy does limit that broader appeal on purpose. But there were moments where I had a big belly laugh, and there were others where members of the audience I watched it with audibly gasped.

In the end, do we recommend Bottoms? Well, generally, it was a fun run from start to finish, even if you knew pretty much how it was all going to go down. This is not going to be a film for everyone, with a lot of language and sex through into the mix. But if you like those sorts of comedies, then give this a watch. If you liked Bottoms, we would recommend to you No Hard Feelings.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Bottoms
Directed by – Emma Seligman
Written by – Emma Seligman & Rachel Sennott
Cinematography by – Maria Rusche
Edited by – Hanna Park
Music by – Charli XCX & Leo Birenberg
Production/Distribution Companies – Orion Pictures, Brownstone Productions, MGM & Warner Brothers Pictures.
Starring – Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, Nicholas Galitzine, Miles Fowler, Marshawn Lynch, Dagmara Domińczyk, Punkie Johnson, Zamani Wilder, Summer Joy Campbell, Virginia Tucker & Wayne Péré
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: na; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R