My quick rating – 6.2/10. So, Bottoms has been loitering in my watchlist like an uninvited drama kid at a varsity football party. I finally sat down to see what all the queer chaos was about, and what I witnessed was part Fight Club, part Bring It On, and part “what the hell did I just watch?” It’s not horror (for once), but it might haunt certain high school cliques forever.
The movie stars Rachel Sennott (who also co-wrote it) as PJ, a self-absorbed teen with a mission: seduce a cheerleader. Her partner in crime is Josie (Ayo Edebiri), slightly less unlikable but still onboard with the plan to kickstart a fake feminist self-defense club that somehow spirals into an all-out brawl-palooza of misguided girl power and misplaced hormones. Imagine if two horny outcasts tried to stage a revolution and accidentally got a bunch of teenage girls to start pile-driving each other in gym class. That’s Bottoms, OK, part of it.
Now, here’s where it gets wild (and dumb, but in a lovable way): the football team wears full pads everywhere like they’re allergic to jeans. The cheerleaders? Let’s just say, Sennott didn’t even try to give them a brain cell to share. Their biggest moment is a non-sexy, wet t-shirt-adjacent pep rally scene that’s less “wow” and more “why?”
Somehow, every single character in the movie ends up being more likable than PJ. If that was a creative choice, bravo. If not, someone needs to check on Sennott’s high school yearbook—there’s some serious unresolved angst pouring out of this script. If she had friends, they’re all blocking her now.
The comedy does slap, but it slaps like a school bus hitting a clown car. It’s chaotic, sometimes tone-deaf, but when the punches fly (literally), it’s genuinely funny. Marshawn Lynch steals scenes as the only adult in sight—clearly confused, likely high, and definitely the MVP. You’ll ask yourself: Who is running this school? The answer is “nobody,” and that’s the joke.
Oh, and there’s not a cell phone in sight. Either this takes place in some bizarre Gen-Z utopia without TikTok, or they just couldn’t be bothered with continuity. The middle of the film slows when it tries to inject real emotional stakes, but thankfully, it remembers it’s a satire just in time for a gloriously stupid finale involving anarchy, violence, and girl-on-girl redemption.
Bottom line: Bottoms is like watching a high school play written by someone who watched Mean Girls, GLOW, and The Purge in the same night. It’s not meant to be taken seriously. If you’re in the target audience—teenage, rebellious, and fluent in ironic detachment—you’ll probably adore it. If you’re not, you’ll still have a good time wondering how on Earth this made it to theaters.
And honestly? I’m glad it did, it is just unfortunate it vanished into my blackhole of a watchlist.
You have quite a few streaming choices, including Amazon for this one.