a new racy lesbian comedy film reinvents the genre

By Sadie Bodzin and Yomi Hemley

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