Reviews

It has taken months and months, but the teen sex comedy Bottoms is finally being released in the U.K.

This satirical high school comedy, directed by Emma Seligman, follows two lesbians PJ and Josie (Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri).

They are losers on the bottom of the social ladder at school and they decide to change that by running a fight club for girls.

They insist they want to help empower the female students but their real intentions aren’t so pure – they want to become popular and get closer to hot cheerleaders Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber).

Seligman’s directorial debut, 2021’s Shiva Baby, was a low-budget independent film that felt tight, spot-on and laser-focused. Bottoms, which is significantly larger in terms of budget and scale, felt all over the place, inconsistent and less controlled in comparison.

The script, written by Seligman and Sennott, was so sharp, relatable and hilarious at times so it was a shame when it didn’t maintain that standard throughout.

It was still entertaining and filled with several laugh-out-loud moments but it could have been stronger.

You won’t be able to resist a laugh at Nicholas Galitzine’s Jeff, who is the opposite of the traditional jock character.

He’s such a wuss that it’s hard to see why he’s so popular at school and attractive to women. It feels like he’s in a different film to the others because his bizarre performance is so hammy and OTT but this is probably a deliberate parody of jock stereotypes.

Sennott and Edebiri are strong leads though. They are friends in real life and this chemistry shows on-screen; it is delightful watching them bounce jokes off each other.

While PJ and Josie make questionable choices and don’t treat people with much respect, we still somehow enjoy watching them make a mess of everything.

Bottoms is an entertaining sex comedy with two excellent leads – but the jokes needed to be more consistent.

In cinemas Friday 3rd November.

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