SXSW 2023 Review: “Bottoms” – An Outrageous High School Fantasy Knockout!

With names like Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott, the team behind Shiva Baby, and a title like Bottoms, it goes without saying audiences were going to be in for a wild ride regardless. The movie follows PJ and Josie in their senior year of high school with massive crushes on two girls Isabella and Brittany. In hopes to woo them PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) start a fight club with a crew of other colorful characters in pursuit of finally getting their dream girls, and by getting I mean hooking up with them.

Bottoms is the most outrageous fantasy high school experience I’ve ever seen, where anything goes, and everything goes. Seligman and Sennott’s script is so incredibly sharp and zany, feeling like it comes right out of a horny teen comic book with absolutely no rules. It is a highly original concept with comedy that could only be done by Seligman and Sennott. To say this movie is one of the wildest high school fantasies I’ve ever seen is no exaggeration at all.

This ensemble cast so perfectly bounces off of one another in every moment and the film never lets up. The cast of women are some of the funniest comedic actors working today. With that said, Bottoms also does an amazing job of highlighting the male characters for their insanity as well. Anyone to be a part of Seligman and Sennott next project will consider it a gift to their career, I’m sure of it.

At the core, Bottoms is a feminist comedy that feels authentic in its writing even if the world the characters are in is so far gone from reality. It doesn’t hold back to show the flaws of the teenagers while also giving them the ability to be unapologetically gay. Where so many movies try to use incision as a selling point to only talk to the talk, this is written in a way that makes fun of those sentiments while clearly going for the knockout. You’re going to want to see this movie again the second it is over and takes down every high school film before it.

‘Bottoms (2023)’ Rating – 4.5/5

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