User Reviews

The "teen movie" is making a comeback, and the latest from Emma Seligman (of 2021's Shiva Baby) is one of the funniest, wildest, and most delightfully ridiculous in recent memory.

I certainly liked it better than last year's Do Revenge, which harkened back to the Jawbreaker era (and was only at points funny); this one has been described in similar terms, but perhaps more so as a modernized Animal House, or a John Hughes film where the girls take center stage and get to be the weirdo freaks and outcasts with schemes to get laid (still with girls) and attain popularity. Of course, then there's the crucial Fight Club call-back when a self-defense group is formed to help the female students at Rockbridge Falls protect themselves from the kind of movie jocks that never take off their shoulder pads even when having sex. (Even as I've tried to describe this plot, I defy you to try to predict where it winds up.)

Bottoms also continues the trend of making everyone fall in love with Rachel Sennott, whose face is becoming more and more prominent in my kino circles -- this may even be her absolute most hilarious performance. Her co-star Ayo Edebiri (another name I'm glad to be seeing more and more of lately), is similarly on-point, same with the various co-stars, all of them firing on all silly cylinders and bringing chaotic energy to even the most laid-back performances.

Every single person here seems to be having the time of their lives. It reminded me a bit of the energy in Barbie, only this one is -- in the best possible sense -- a lot more unhinged.

Its influences are many, as I said (one of its more "early 2000s" elements is the Avril Lavigne needle drop, which is up there with the Bonnie Tyler sequence as one of the most glorious and hilarious moments in the movie), but this is a film that does something truly special with its homages and love letters. I rarely say things like this, but if this movie spawns a bunch of sequels, where these characters go on Scooby-Doo-style adventures, say, or otherwise start playing around with other genre tropes in outrageous ways, I won't complain. This is a universe I'd love to see more of. We don't get many of those.

I understand that many people on here hated this. But since most of the complaints seem to be coming from the same faint-of-heart Zoomers who lost their minds over the content in No Hard Feelings (because an upbringing saturated with sexless Marvel movies will do that to you), I feel like I've made the right call here.

This movie is an acquired taste. At first, I thought it was just silly. Then I thought it was extremely silly. Eventually I laughed my butt off. There is no scene that they don't take over the top. Whether they are mocking teen movies or parodying David Fincher or using Marshawn Lynch to comment on feminism, the entire cast completely goes for it. The humor and raunchiness are extreme, but my family laughed so much that I think we missed 25% of the punchlines. Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott absolutely kill this one (no pun intended).

PSA - Just be careful watching this one with your parents or children. It is rated R for a reason.

When 'Bottoms' started I thought to myself, okay this is 'Superbad' but with women. And it kind of was for a time. Then it somehow became 'Fight Club' with women, and finished up as a film I had never seen before. This was a journey.

The film is done in quite a bizarre way. It's set in the present but everyone dresses like the 70s and there are no smart phones. Also there are almost no adults in the film and the few that there are are absolute monsters. If there's a school assembly the students are just running it, for example. You get used to it after a while but I can't remember another film like it in that sense.

The film is at its best when it is just trying to be wacky and funny. There's a period in the middle where some conflict arrises and the film gets bogged down briefly. Which is a shame because when the film is trying to be funny it is genuinely funny. There is some great dialogue in this film. I had a good time. 8/10.

As "Bottoms" (2023 release; 92 min.) opens, we are introduced to BFFs PJ (who has a crush on cheerleader Brittany) and Josie (who has a crush on cheerleader Isabel). After a "back to school" event, PJ and Josie decide to start a self-defense club, and Brittany and Isabel are among the girls joining the club...

Couple of comments: this is the second feature-length of writer-director Emma Seligman ("Shiva Baby"). Seligman co-wrote the script with Rachel Sennott who plays PJ. Elizabeth Banks is one of the movie's producers. The plot as it is is purposefully over the top and frankly meaningless. It just creates the excuse, as if one is needed, for zippy dialogue and satire of just about everything. I knew all of this beforehand. What I expected was a bunch of funny situations peppered with zany jokes. What I actually experience was something quite different. A smile here and there, but I couldn't really get into it, sorry. I fully realize that as a straight male I am not the intended target audience but bottom line is that funny is funny, no matter what, and this wasn't really it. This is of course a very subjective take but I can only convey what I experienced.

"Bottoms" premiered at the SXSW Festival in March, and was rolled out nationwide in theaters this Labor Day weekend. The Friday early evening screening where I saw this at my local arthouse theater here in Cincinnati was attended okay (about 10 people). For what it's worth, "Bottoms" is currently rated 95% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. If you are in the mood for a rowdy HS comedy, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Bottoms tells the story of two friend deeply in love with the school's top cheerleader. During a chance meeting, they discovered how they were horribly treated by their boyfriends. With the increasing reports of attacks on woman, they hatched a plan to help their crushed or actually just have loving hugs with them by opening up a 'Fight Club'-inspired self-defense club.

I would say that I have some reservations with Bottoms BUT I think the clearest thing about this is that Seligman is a great fundamental director.

I think the script for this could definitely hit harder. The lesbian elements, and the crassness and quotability, for a film like this can definitely been higher. The overall flow of the story and the commentary is somewhat haphazard BUT definitely leans on that its self serving and can be annoying - which is rare for modern films like this. Who tends to glorify it for the sake of cookie points. The allotment of improv somewhat disrupts whatever it is trying to go for at times.

Acting-wise, no one is really noteworthy. Senott and Ayo were fine. They are acting but did not elevate the material particularly. Very disappointed with Galitzine, especially since he is one hit away from stardom. His role here is a foil BUT can definitely amped up in Austin Abrams in Do Revenge kind of way. He just rested in pretty, which was disappointing.

BUT, I see a director who has a vision in what product she wants to tell. Its an imperfect film but I think Seligman can course herself into something big if she turned up the writing.

Recommended. Will definitely seek Shiva Baby.

I really can't score this movie any lower than a nine. Not only was it my style of humor, it was able to stay entertaining all the way to the end. No third act deflation! And on top of being funny for the entire runtime, I enjoyed the story. I actually thought it had a plot that drew me in and gave me a highly satisfying resolution. I appreciated the fact that there were so many ridiculous details that it was almost like this movie was set in an alternate universe. For me, it kept the balance exactly right. Wild, but with some grounded elements to keep me caring about the characters. I think this could become one of my favorite comedies of all time. I don't know how many other people I would show it to, because I think the humor was extremely subjective, but I treasured it.

Bottoms

This teen comedy sees two high schoolers begin a fight club to be in close proximity with the cheerleaders they're interested in, and ultimately date them.

Bottoms is different from most teen comedies, this flick is raunchy, bloody, violent and dripping in satire. But for how over-the-top Bottoms becomes, it isn't funny, or not as funny as it should be, which is especially sad because the trailer promised a swell time. The zany jokes that a movie like this should have are missing; the comical moments here can't provide more than a smile.

The cast brought the best they could to this project, and most of the characters are distinct.

Themes of sexuality, friendship, women empowerment and identity are employed here.

Bottoms is a fresh idea, and would have worked with a funnier script.

6/10.

Bottoms mixes old fashioned high school movie tropes with Fight Club to create a comedy unlike any other. It continues 2023s winning streak for comedies with a really funny, really violent and really heartwarming satire in which everything is exaggerated to the maximum and it works so well because of that.

Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri are phenomenal. Their chemistry is instant, making it so easy to believe they've been friends for most of their lives. The way they bounce off each other as well is incredible, earlier scenes have them talking non stop and pretty much all of it is really funny.

Few characters have been as pathetic as Jeff and Nicholas Galitzine completely embraces it. He's the stereotypical jock taken to its most absurd extreme. Marshawn Lynch displays a real comedic talent here, playing dumb so well and delivering one of the best and darkest jokes of the whole film.

Emma Seligman's direction is amazing, there's so many clever visual gags hidden in the background and the fights are really bloody with real weight behind them. Her and Sennott's writing combined with the improv make it one of the most successful comedies, line-for-line. The soundtrack and the score by Leo Birenberg & Charli XCX really capture the euphoria of it all.

I have always loved high school comedies and was hoping to love this one too. I liked it. I just wished it was more grounded in reality.

On the plus side, It was refreshing to see two queer female best friends as the main characters. They were outcasts at school but embraced it. The chemistry between the two was strong and their scenes together were funny and at times touching.

As for the cons, the film felt low budget. I didn't mind this at first but by the second half, the film falls into lapses of logic and ridiculousness. This is a high school that only seems to have one teacher. Insane things happen between students and no one intervenes. The last 20 minutes are especially nuts to the film's detriment. I started to long for the polish of a Clueless or Mean Girls.

Overall a decent effort in desperate need of some fine tuning.

People were hyping this movie up like it was the second coming of Brian. But not only did it fail to evoke any response mildly resembling a laugh, it in fact made me wonder what people even consider to be funny these days.

It's over-the-top satire, sure, I get that, and I even get what this movie tries to poke fun at, but I just found myself being unable to enjoy or even connect with this particular style of annoying teenage humour. I don't know if this is a generational thing or a cultural thing... it could be both. All I know is that it just wasn't for me.

I don't think I'll ever recommend this to anyone, but neither would I recommend against it. Because humour is extremely subjective, and maybe this might be the funniest movie you'd have seen.

Bottoms and Barbie prove that it was only a matter of time before the big screen showed how women act when we're together in a room, no man involved.

I spent my whole childhood keeping a straight face during comedy movies and not knowing why. Now i do: they weren't made with me in mind. Women were the object of desire or the punchline. The way they spoke and dressed wasn't realistic.

I recently watched the hangover for the first time and it was a rude reminder of how unbearable the early 2000's were if you weren't a man. People thought that, to be funny, was to be disrespectful without a hint of irony. That's why mean girls, for example, was so fresh and revolutionary, that's why we see it as iconic almost twenty years later.

If you were a girl or woman in the early 2000s and felt like the raunchy teen comedy genre wasn't for you, you'll probably like this film a lot. I had the opportunity to watch it at newfest pride in a room of people who had no idea what to expect, and we didn't stop laughing for a single minute.

This is how queer women interact with each other, how we dress, what we joke about. It was so surreal to see our reality depicted on the big screen! Keep 'em coming!

Now here's a high school, that you'd love to go to, as anything goes - nothing's taboo, where two single girls, who aren't looking for pearls, start a club to find love, that gets quite misconstrued. There is punching and kicking, a shove with a push, the dialogues quite racy and might make you blush (if you're of a certain age and demographic), a battle of sexes, as pairs become exes, the romance is there, but it just isn't mush. Growing up can be tough if you're different from others, once being a woman kept you under the covers, now the rules of engagement, don't lead to enragement, and a progressive world - just will not be smothered.

Rachel Sennott, who I've typically only seen in supporting roles mostly, takes the lead here, which made me curious about how she'd do. The characters gave off vibes reminiscent of the PEN15 TV show. The cringe moments were more uncomfortable to watch than funny, but there were a few enjoyable funny moments, especially towards the end.

The lesbian leads felt like typical characters you'd find in a standard teen movie, offering little that was new or original beyond the fact that they were gay, which, in today's context, is a noteworthy selling point. This approach was still good since their sexuality was just one aspect of their character, not their entire identity or the focal point of the movie. It didn't reduce them to a single trait. They were portrayed as Just overly delirious and horny, creating wild schemes to impress the popular girls they liked, to compensate for their lack of game. It's a trope that has been seen many times before.

It's okay for movies not the most logical and realistic, but I think it should've been funnier. The tone was inconsistent, shifting between lightheartedness and moments of depth and seriousness. Additionally, the inconsistency in the depiction of bruises kept putting me off because I think it's something that can be fairly easy to get right, right?

I loved the movie more towards the end, as it initially felt like I was watching it on autopilot for almost the entire time, like a familiar story but had with a twist at the end, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Well it wasn't exactly a plot twist but more of aura twist. It felt like directors from "Project X" coming together to make a Disney movie, bringing back a sense of taking silly projects seriously, reminiscent of "old comedies." And on that not, the bloopers at the end were a nice touch too.

Giving this an 7/10 rating

Total screwball comedy set in a high school, very much tipping it's hat towards 1970 and early 80's comedy from the time, but with social commentary of today.

Rachel Sennott, and Ayo Edebiri, play two so called lesbians who get into trouble and form a club of sorts, a fight club, as a way out, and to sort out their sex life. It all goes wrong, as it needs to, Marshawn Lynch is crazy as the hapless poor old teacher, is roped into helping run the club and the background of the school jocks is clearly the focus of the most of the jokes and story.

It gets very bloody with all the fighting and Rachel Sennott, and Ayo Edebiri as the leads get stuck into their roles, as losers, of sorts, Marshawn Lynch is dirty mouthed and crazy. Miles Fowler and Nicholas Galitzine just run with their roles as the school football team jocks, who are just out right mad and evil.

The film strangely works, just 'Cocaine bear', it's a guilty pleasure to behold, and I had a good time watching it, But it's not classic though.

PJ and Josie have been best friends from the start, and this year will be their year. Being the unpopular, unattractive, and atypical gay kids of the school leaves them pinning for the girls they have always dreamed of. After an unfortunate confrontation with the school's star quarterback, they start a self-defense club. What began as a sleazy ploy to get the girls turns into something neither of them ever imagined.

This film turns every hot societal topic into a tasteful joke and creates an atypical high school comedy. This movie combines dark humor, raunchy comedy, and slapstick comedy and even finds a way to make blood and gore funny. The film gets straight to the point, keeps the laughs going from beginning to end, and is not overly complicated. This comedy is for everyone as long as they tolerate vulgar language and dirty jokes. Highly recommend catching this one in theaters to enjoy a good laugh.

Bottoms is a teen coming of age comedy that is both vulgar and surreal. It tells the story of some girls who want to score with the cheerleaders so they start a self defense course in their high school. They get sponsored by their teacher, who is former NFL superstar Marshan Lynch (which is very strange and kinda cool.).

The town the teens live in is under threat from rival football team who has come to murder the star QB of the school, and the girls need to get their lady allies into full self defense mode in order to defend their territory from the outsiders.

The film is well acted, pretty well written, and has a good soundtrack. My on real grip with the film is that i goes a little too fast and it feels like lot was cut out of this movie. I will bet there is a superior directors cut of this movie somewhere. But all in all a good coming of age movie with a unique twist.

I should add, even though this film is sort of a "queer" movie one of the things I liked most about it is that it never pushes this or uses that as a crutch. Its a solid film and the same-sex relationships in the movie are just a component of it - normal like any other coming of age romance/teen story - and I appreciated this film for that smart decision.

Hands down one of the funniest movies I've seen this year. It's awkward, relatable, and satirically hilarious. I really wish I could have seen a movie like this when I was in high school.

The acting is great, the humor is well written and witty, the costume design was awesome, and it's such a blast to watch. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who could use a little queer humor in these trying times.

I've kind of run out of things to say because I'm tired but I can't post this review until it hits six hundred characters for some reason. I really hope that my review isn't taken down because of this.

It's so refreshing to see a film where being queer isn't the heavy burden to the characters. Being gay is just an aspect of their character.

The comical world this is set in allows for us to believe along with the crazy ideas they come up with, to believe that these adults are actually kids. You can suspend reality for the hour and a bit of runtime.

I spent every minute or so with a good laugh. The lines almost always hit, and when they want to get serious they do it well.

Rachel Sennot and Ayo Edebiri are so good together and make such a good pair. Edebiri absolutely shines. But the whole cast is fantastic.

Worthwhile watch.

Bottoms offers up some good laughs with a solid storyline to follow. This might not be the laugh out loud comedy that it is advertised to be but still is a very good time. Not once during this film was I bored or looking at my watch to see when it would end. Instead this movie brought a big smile to my face and I enjoyed it from start to finish. The cast here is very good and I like how everything played out in the end. When going into this film don't set your expectations to high but keep them at mid level and you will enjoy this film to. It was also nice seeing Marshawn Lynch pop up in a role in this film. Bottoms gets a solid 7 stars out of 10 from me.

Bottoms is a comedy that uses irony to develop its comedy and, consequently, make accurate criticisms in an exaggerated tone. However, Bottoms is not just carried away by criticism conveyed through humor. This is just another device that supports the film's comedy. The ironic tone helps a lot with the fluidity of the film, turning the entire school environment and the events of the narrative into pure fun. The story is objective and does not fall into the stereotypes of a high school film. Bottoms deviates from any pattern of other films of its style and does not need a message or a certain complexity to become special.

This film is all over the place. It's like someone took one of those romantic teen comedies and turned it upside down and spit on it while calling it trash and a wh*re. It was indeed that wild of a ride. Sometimes it falls a little too hard into parody mode but it also knows when to snap back into reality and make you feel something towards the characters.

The acting here is all really great stuff, especially from the two leads. Their dialouge feels natural to the characters and the actresses deliver it flawlessly!

One issue with the film is I felt like it could have gone just a bit further to shock the audience. Not that there isn't an abudance of gross out or shocking moments, it's just most of them felt tame in the moment.

There's also the issue of the fact that not only would all of these girls be in major trouble for everything that occurs in the film, but they would also be in prison for multiple murders. I know it's just a movie, and the reality in this one is very far away from ours, but there is a point where you have to say "c'mon, really?"

Overall, I recommend it. Even though it's very based in it's own fantasy world, it's a very involving one that is sure to entertain you with it's wacky antics and hilarious consequences for our team of female badasses!

3.5 bottoms out of 5.

Bottoms is a lesbian sex comedy directed by Emma Seligman, featuring PJ and Josie, high school seniors who are bullied for being queer, ugly, and untalented. They accidentally injure Jeff, the star quarterback and high school royalty, leading to false rumors about their violent pasts and killer fighting skills. PJ and Josie start a female fight club at school, aiming to increase female solidarity but ultimately plotting to get closer to their hot-girl crushes and potentially lose their virginities before college. The film leans into high school movie tropes, with football rules the world, class lectures and schoolwork are minimal, and many actors are closer to age 30 than their awkward teenage years. The film's brilliant writing and impressive improv skills are complemented by the talented cast, including Marshawn Lynch as Mr. G, Nicholas Galitzine as the American douchebag, and football player Tim as the villain. The film's climax is the long-awaited Huntington High football game, and chaos ensues as the characters work to expose the club's origins and PJ and Josie's lies. The teen comedy genre has been struggling to find a place in Hollywood as mid-budget movies are replaced by mega-budget franchises. However, director Emma Seligman's R-rated film, Bottoms, is a refreshing return to the genre. The film, a mix of Fight Club and Superbad riff, features Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as PJ and Josie, two Rockbridge Falls High Schoolers who struggle to communicate and find love. After a run-in with quarterback Jeff, they start a self-defense-class-cum-fight-club, recruiting girls from Rockbridge Falls for after-school meetings. The hope is that their crushes, Isabel and Brittany, will eventually come and sleep with them once they impress them with their fighting skills. Bottoms is unafraid to be mean, creating an "anything goes" feeling that is missing from both high school comedy and movies as a whole. The script for the film Bottoms is by Seligman and Sennott, who have been friends since their collaboration on Shiva Baby. This is their most high-profile project to date, and if it doesn't lead to more collaborations, it would be a missed opportunity. Edebiri, who has been Emmy nominated for her role in The Bear, is a comedic force, while Sennott solidified her breakout status in Bodies Bodies Bodies. Seligman has become a voice to watch after Shiva Baby and Bottoms. Bottoms is a teen comedy that has managed to maintain its status as one of the best of the 2020s. The film showcases the versatility of the genre, allowing women to be as crude, violent, and horny as men. Marshawn Lynch's comedic presence adds to the chaos, making it a standout. Bottoms is 92 minutes long and rated R for crude sexual content, pervasive language, and some violence. Despite its grounded moments, Bottoms remains a bolder and more daring film than much of the recent major studio releases. It is currently playing in theaters and is rated R for crude sexual content, pervasive language, and some violence. Bottoms is a film that operates on a level of absurdity, with Sennott and Edebiri enjoying the absurdity. However, some jokes don't land where they need to. The film is set in a hyper-stylized reality, and it could have leaped more into the absurd. The scenery is filled with surprising imagery, but there's a disconnect between the sensory overload and some of the more grounded moments in the film. The film could have leaped more into the absurd, but it's a well-crafted film.

I have read a lot of reviews on IMDb over time and I have also written quite a few. I am utterly shocked by the wide range of reactions here: some people are ecstatic but many others find it unfunny and basic if not repellent.

As always the truth is somewhere in between. It really feels to me like American Pie for the 2020s and this time the culprits are a bunch of lesbian students. This is not a film that could've been made in the 1970s or even 1980s. Impossible at the time. So for that it is good.

• The fact that these two girls would create a self-defence club which is actually a fight club to "score" is so perverted and sick that you can either think of it as funny or just plain twisted. The minder-supervisor is really quite funny here; He has his own problems which he weaves into the scene and that really is hilarious

So let us be clear here: this is coarse this is nasty this is bad taste, I am interested to see that Elizabeth Banks was the producer here anyone who has seen Cocaine Bear (2023) could also understand why she would be attracted to this one here it has all the violence coarseness and twisted humour which was also In Cocaine Bear (2023)

The question readers will want to know is is this film worth seeing is it funny? Well to me and I am way older than the target audience actually 65 years old but youthful in spirit and a teacher in the secondary sector so well aware of what is funny to teenagers even in 2023, I think you could answer the question two ways. It is hilarious it is bad taste coarse humour and therefore really funny but if you want to question the intelligence of the humour here you could also say No this is just moronic. And the reviews we see here on IMDb show the wide wide gamut of reactions.

Personally I really enjoyed it overall I thought it was hilarious a bit insane no strike that totally insane almost like a stoner movie and yes in many ways it did remind me a lot of American Pie all those years ago but this time the main protagonists are a posse of lesbians with massively ulterior motives to their actions. 30 40 years ago those kind of films were about teenage boys wanting to get laid before they left secondary school (The innumerable Prom movies) so now the wheel has turned forward and we have this one here.

I will say it one more time: if you like your humour twisted inappropriate coarse rude rude irreverent over-the-top mildly insane this is a film for you. If you do not like this kind of thing give it a wide berth you will hate it.