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Reviewer rating: 1412/2568
Bottoms is a film with a fully bonkers premise. Two lesbian excessive schoolers wish to hook up with two of the favored scorching cheerleaders and devise a plan to begin a highschool struggle membership to lure them in with the promise of feminine empowerment. The obvious motive for the necessity to defend themselves is {that a} rival highschool’s gamers are attacking feminine members of the highschool and beating them up (not that that is seen even as soon as). As one rapidly discovers, Bottoms exists in some adjoining universe the place absurd violence is permissible and accepted, so there’s no considered getting the police concerned.
Bottoms is a little bit of a tonal mess. It pivots backwards and forwards between desirous to have an affecting friendship between its two lead characters (greatest mates since elementary college), romantic relationships, commentary on feminism and feminine solidarity, and loopy, over-the-top antics. Whereas director Emma Seligman does her greatest to stability these tones, and there are many humorous moments all through, Bottoms fails to discover a constant heart for the movie, leading to wild tonal whiplash.
This can be a movie the place a highschool male athlete assaults a feminine member of the struggle membership throughout a pep rally and beats the crap out of her. The struggle culminates within the male kicking her throughout the face whereas she is susceptible on the bottom as a form of ending transfer. This additionally kicks off the tip of the second act, the place our protagonists have been outed as mendacity about sure issues and every little thing is in decline. Do the lecturers, administration, or safety of this college care or do something about this? Completely not. With out giving an excessive amount of away, a number of individuals find yourself violently murdered, a improvement that’s each ignored and celebrated inside the logic of the movie.
To some extent it is a nostalgic nod to 80s intercourse comedies. The titles and different lettering all use a heavy metal-inspired font, and the film embraces the identical diploma of absurdity {that a} Zucker and Abrams or Harold Ramis movie may. Whereas these movies are combined luggage in some respects, they did have the nice sense to remain according to their tone. They have been absurd and remained absurd all through, not asking the viewers for emotional funding or ever main one to imagine there have been actual individuals or conditions concerned.
That isn’t the case with Bottoms, which tries to make us care in regards to the internal workings of the relationships of the 2 leads, PJ and Josie, and the ladies they pursue. Whereas this method tries so as to add a bit extra depth to an in any other case easy comedy and make it “about” one thing, it merely doesn’t work with the ridiculous in-universe occurrences. One feels adrift within the 96-minute movie that leaves you confused on the best way to really feel from scene to scene.
Bottoms is just not a catastrophe per se. Many scenes work nicely in and of themselves. Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri are fairly good actresses, even when the movie tends to observe the trendy pattern of utilizing semi-sarcastic rambling as an alternative choice to humor. When it really works, it really works, as in an early scene the place Edebiri’s Josie goes on and on about how skinny her crush is. The movie’s flippant method to graphic violence additionally ends in a number of laugh-out-loud moments the place the highschool girls are actually beating the crap out of one another. It’s not one thing you’re used to seeing, and it feels prefer it’s pushing a boundary of some variety. Former NFL participant Marshawn Lynch seems in a small position because the instructor sponsor of the struggle membership, however whereas the script arms him some funny-ish moments the place he feedback on feminine points, Lynch is sadly from the unfavourable aspect of movie star stunt casting and lacks any actual sense of comedic timing. There’s definitely worse on the market, however Lynch doesn’t appear certain for a Hollywood profession.
One needs Bottoms have been higher. It has the potential to be a very nice movie, however the director and author and editor all wanted to get it to a spot that felt extra constant. It both wanted to attempt to keep extra grounded, or, alternatively, eschew makes an attempt at seriousness and lean much more closely into outright farce. The center floor it tries to strike renders Bottoms a muddled work and never as satisfying as one hopes.
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