Bottoms is a funny movie. Both in the sense of being extremely funny and extremely weird. It’s about two high-school seniors, played by breakout comedy stars Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, who inadvertently start a feminist fight club while trying to attract two cheerleaders they have a crush on. By the end of the movie, they’re fighting a murderous mass brawl to stop an assassination attempt on the star quarterback, who’s also become their worst enemy. Well, let’s be clear, they’re very much their own worst enemies – but they do plant a bomb on the quarterback’s car, so it’s close. We used to get tons of weird, bawdy movies like this, and Bottoms is a very 2020s spin on that genre, sitting in the space between American Pie and Anchorman, and is one of the best Prime Video movies for comedy fans.
It’s a classic farce, in that it’s basically about people trying to get themselves out of the consequences of a small lie by telling bigger lies, and digging a hole so deep there’s no clear way out. Sennott and Adebiri just want an excuse to talk to their crushes, and somehow end up claiming to have killed someone in juvie after just a few sentences of being quizzed about why they should run a self-defense class.
As with a lot of edgier comedy movies, what makes it all work is that Bottoms has a lot of heart. Sennott and Edebiri shine as the manic energy that drives it all, but the charming members of the fight club are the the reason the whole thing stays (largely) on the rails, because you just want the best for them. The goes double for Hazel, played by Ruby Cruz, who is the real secret star of the movie for me. She’s so effortlessly charismatic, weird and mournful all at the same time, and the movie knows this, making her the center of the lead characters’ big turn from living the lie to having to be responsible for fixing things.
I love just how cynical the movie is about its leads as well. The movie is super-clear: they’re jerks with idiot teenager brain. The movie will show them asking if they’re unpopular because they’re gay, then immediately dunk on them by showing how mega-popular other gay people are. They talk in the language of social justice, and mean exactly none of it – it’s just terms they’ve picked up from the internet to try to win arguments. They’re a throwback to the spiky leads of movies like Groundhog Day or My Best Friend’s Wedding (in which Julia Roberts plays the biggest psychopath ever depicted on-screen). I really hope Bottoms‘ success brings us more movies in that vein; Rachel Sennott could be our new Bill Murray.
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matthew.bolton@futurenet.com (Matt Bolton)
