If you go into Bottoms under the notion that it’ll be a typical high school comedy, you’re in for a real treat. This movie can be described as many things: horny, lesbian, bloody, incel, violent, etc. But it definitely can’t be described as an ordinary high school comedy in any way, which is why that’s exactly what makes this movie so good.
The movie starts with childhood best friends PJ, played by Rachel Sennot, and Josie, played by Ayo Edibiri, getting ready for their school’s back to school carnival. In an attempt to impress their crushes Isabel, played by Havana Rose Liu, and Brittany, played by Kaia Jordan Gerber, the best friends accidentally “injure” Isabel’s boyfriend, Jeff, played by Nicholas Galitzine. When rumors at school arise and they get sent to the principal’s office, Josie lies about starting a fight club. The girls end up starting this fight club, but not for the reason of promoting women solidarity, but to get with their respective crushes.
Behind the humor of the movie, there are deeper issues of hypermasculinity, violence against women, and homophobia that are addressed as well. However, these issues don’t have to take center stage and control the characters’ personalities or storylines as they often do in movies about queer people. It’s important to be able to represent queer youth especially, and paint them as regular people and this movie does a great job at highlighting the issues presented with humor instead of cruelty. It’s refreshing to see a movie about LGBTQ+ youth that doesn’t shy away from issues in the community but is also able to flip the switch and be hilarious as well.
The comical cuts make the movie itself even funnier and the self awareness of how absurd the entire film contributes to the humor as well. Every character is played in a believable way that really feels as if they are highschoolers. It also isn’t deep with an underlying message. It’s just a funny movie that happens to have queer people in it. The majority of queer movies and shows only represent gay men, leading to many lesbians feeling underrepresented in their own community. On the rare occasion there is a lesbian film or show, it often includes some tragic story, but that’s not the case with Bottoms. This is why Bottoms’ representation is so important. It makes lesbians and sapphics feel seen in a lighthearted way that people can truly enjoy.
With this movie, Bottoms is opening doors for this type of comedy in queer TV and movies. Bottoms isn’t only a feel-good high school comedy, but also proof that there can be queer and especially sapphic representation in media without the character’s going through some dilemma about their queerness, displaying that all queer people are so just so so much more.
