While high school girls slugging each other in the face might seem a little jarring, the fim’s genius is in its dedication to its unhinged premise. Two unpopular lesbian best friends (played by Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott) attempt to score chicks by starting a “self defense” club at their high school, and the plan kind of works – and draws a lot of blood.
As far as teen lesbian movies go, “Bottoms” is refreshingly over the coming out narratives. Nor is it about anti-gay bullying or anything very special episode worthy (though, obviously, not that those kinds of stories aren’t important). But this movie is just about two weirdo friends who somehow land the girls of their dreams by beating each other up. Director Emma Seligman (who co-wrote the script with Rachel) took your standard madcap high school comedy romp and said, make it queer! And absurd! Both in a good way!
The gonzo gusto and awkward everything of Ayo and Rachel and the rest of the cast make this wonderfully weird movie work, when nothing should work (especially their plan, especially). Also, holy doppleganger Batwoman, is Kaia Gerber the spitting image of mama Cindy Crawford or what? Like, it was almost distracting. Anway, where was I? Oh yeah, first rule of teenage lesbian fight club is everyone should go see the teenage lesbian fight club movie.
I saw it three times in the theater and still missed a lot of the visual gags and background character actions as there is so much going on in the frame at any time. That said, I absolutely loved it and found it funnier on the second and third watch. I have since bought the digital release and with closed captioning have found even more things I missed the first three times. The whole cast knocks it out of the park with the absurdity of the bizarre world their characters inhabit. One thing I did not like was the decision of the film makers to use a wide aperture lens to blur the background in almost all scenes. I understand their reasoning to focus on the main characters and as a reflection of the main character's myopic selfishness, but I felt it was overused. But that is just me. I highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys high camp and absurdity in their comedy.
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