“Could the ugly, untalented gays please report to the principal’s office?”
Within the opening frames of director Emma Seligman’s sophomore feature “Bottoms,” I knew I was in for an experience like no other.
The film is the delirious brainchild of Seligman and actress Rachel Sennott, who first collaborated on their masterful 2020 cringe comedy “Shiva Baby.”
While that film followed the anxious and awkward life of a recent college graduate, the duo now set their sights on arguably the most anxious and awkward period of all our lives: high school.
Though it lampoons tropes inherent to the high school and coming-of-age genres, “Bottoms” continues to excavate what Seligman as writer/director and Sennott as star (and in this case co-writer) do best and what separates them as truly generational talents: deftly adjoining the messiness and complexity of living in the modern age with the messiness and complexity of the queer experience.
Sennott stars as PJ, opposite the brilliant Ayo Edebiri as Josie. The two are unpopular best friends who consistently find themselves on the outskirts of their football-worshipping, patriarchal high school, desiring to date the popular cheerleaders but unsure exactly how.
As violent and homophobic tensions in the school rise to the surface, PJ and Josie decide to start an all-female self-defense club, leading to newfound connections and high-stakes shenanigans in equal measure.
What begins as a comic riff on David Fincher’s “Fight Club” soon transforms into its own wonderfully transgressive work of giddy, mad genius.
Sennott and Seligman’s free-wheeling, absurdist screenplay, combined with standout performances by Edebiri and Marshawn Lynch (yes, that Marshawn Lynch) elevate “Bottoms” into not only the best movie of 2023, but also a watershed moment in Millennial and Gen-Z filmmaking.
Its unbridled, madcap energy reminded me of seeing Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” for the first time – a film of unpredictable verve seldom seen in American filmmaking, in turn acting as the bold declaration of a once-in-a-generation cinematic talent.
While “Boogie Nights” served as a loving synthesis of 1970s cinema, “Bottoms” carves its inspirations out of uniquely 21st century works, from the likes of Judd Apatow-produced comedies to “High School Musical.” Charli XCX provides a memorable and electric score, while hit singles like Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” serve as the musical cherry on top in a film brimming with irony and tenderness alike.
“Bottoms” is the high school movie to end all high school movies — a bold and revelatory satirical balancing act in addition to being one of the most purely enjoyable, hilarious screenplays of recent memory.
Few movies have left me feeling as electrified or provided me with such a lingering jolt of energy after I saw the film at SXSW in March.
If you see one movie in 2023, see “Bottoms.”
“Bottoms” opens Sept. 1 in theaters nationwide.
