Review: Bottoms

Image courtesy of Orion Pictures.

There are occasions when I feel slightly old when watching a movie or TV show about younger characters, especially those inhabiting the present day and age; it's naturally easier to relate to period piece coming of age stories when one grew up during the periods in which the story is taking place. Needless to say, the first third of Emma Seligman's oddball high school comedy "Bottoms" made me feel a little on the aged side (full disclosure: I turned 46 this week).

Then, about 30 minutes into the picture - which is a peculiar blend of your typical high school comedy with "Fight Club" and "Heathers" - I began to warm to it. I'm still not entirely sure the whole thing works, but there was enough there to grab my attention and mostly keep it.

Although the film takes place in your typical high school setting, there's something off about this world, as if everything is exaggerated to an obviously over-the-top extent. For example, the high school football team leads the school in a chant about how horny they are during pep rallies, teachers and students use profane language in discussion with one another about everyday topics, and the two lead characters - PJ (Rachel Sennot, star of Seligman's other film, "Shiva Baby") and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) - are referred to by homophobic slurs (both characters are gay) when called to the principal's office over the loudspeaker. 

In other words, everything's just a little off in "Bottoms." And there's never any explanation as to why this is - you either just accept it or you don't. At first, the film's tone veers between being quirky and grating, but once you become accustomed to it, there are a fair share of laughs to be had.

Without getting too far into the details as to why this happens, PJ and Josie start a self defense class for the school's young women, although it's really more of a fight club where they punch each other out with great enthusiasm. The ulterior motive for starting the club is to attract the attention of their crushes - cheerleaders Brittany (Kaia Gerberg) for PJ and Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), who is dating the school's obnoxious and easily frazzled super jock, for Josie.

There's no need to go too far into the plot details here, but while "Bottoms" follows some typical high school movie beats (the fight club becomes popular before losing credibility with the school population, and both PJ and Josie win the trust of their crushes, only to have their plan backfire), it is also bizarre on a level rarely seen in these types of films - and that's before the bloody finale involving a fight between the club and a rival football team's players.

"Bottoms" doesn't always work. It's a little slow to get going at first, and while I appreciated the commentary on sexual assault, police inaction, and misogyny, and found it refreshing to see old tropes being given such an unusual spin, I'm not sure the film ultimately knows what it wants to say about the numerous timely topics it riffs on. As such, "Bottoms" is an unusual and often enjoyably transgressive coming of age story, even if it's not completely successful.