At Rockbridge Falls, the social hierarchy-obsessed high school where Emma Seligman sets her sophomore film, Bottoms, PJ and Josie are – politely put – absolute losers. That is until, they accidentally start a self-defense club to lure their cheerleader crushes into their arms under the guise of “female empowerment.” Everything goes according to plan at first, but it’s not long before the lies the club is built off of start catching up to the two fraudulent best friends. Backed by an A-grade cast, Bottoms attempts to name itself the modern heir to campy high school comedies like But I’m a Cheerleader and Heathers, but ultimately misses the mark.
If you’ve ever seen anything set in an American high school before, you can probably guess what each character in Bottoms is like. The cheerleaders are unapproachable. Their football player boyfriends treat them horribly. And our main characters, the flannel-wearing underdogs, know they’d treat the tortured heroines better. To a point, parodying these well-known and tired tropes makes way for some good punchlines, but eventually Seligman’s desire to mock every archetype starts feeling like a tedious checklist. In fact, the best parts of the film come from when it’s doing its own thing, whether it be quirky one-liners or a perfectly placed Avril Lavigne needle drop.
Ayo Edebiri as Josie (hilariously pathetic) and Rachel Sennott as PJ (just pathetic) make everything funnier by their awkward auras alone, and much of the film’s appeal can be credited to a consistently entertaining cast. Despite this, no one involved is at their best, and all Seligman does is get the bare minimum out of an otherwise talented set of actors.
Bottoms tries to keep real-life issues – like hypermasculinity, misogyny, and violence – on the back burner throughout its absurd premise. Seligman isn’t afraid to acknowledge these problems, but winds up pulling some punches when she feels her film turning too meaningful or too funny. This unwillingness to go all out in either direction results in a tonally confusing, underwhelming film.
A prominent example of this is when an almost-sincere moment of female solidarity is halted by PJ and Josie’s compulsive urges to lie. It’s not unheard of for unlikeable anti-heroes to lead a comedy, but when their terribleness just becomes a crutch to interrupt anything from getting anywhere, most scenes feel pointless.
At its best Bottoms brings an enjoyable twist to the otherwise overdone genre of coming-of-age films. At its worst, it feels like a weird Frankenstein-ed version of a bunch of other, better, funnier stories. Despite occasional laughs, Bottoms just feels like the first draft of something that could’ve been better with a clearer focus.
