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DokBrowne [ 8.0 ]
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Bonkers rendition of a high school sex comedy from the "Shiva Baby" gang (Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott) pitched somewhere between exaggerated parody and makeshift "who gives a fuck". A couple of loser girls desperate to fuck the hot girls in school form an official fight club to get closer to them. Real-life pals and collaborators Sennott and rising star Ayo Edibiri (what a year for her!) lie, scheme and fumble around while matters escalate, or rather continue to be absurd in this cartoon universe where anything goes. You gotta love a movie that realizes it doesn't have to play by the same old rules anymore. Teens couldn't get away with any of the shit they do in this movie, and it's kind of shocking that the movie itself gets away with some of it, like using weapons at school, or all the slurs. You're served a light-hearted mood with an actual romantic streak yet the satirical behavior of these students and teachers is downright frightening at times, taking some of our worst traits and ugliest habits to psychotic extremes. The evil jocks who rule the school should be annihilated off the face of the earth but Seligman and Sennott settle for a greater benevolence overall somehow, making the film a tangy mix of sunny youth wackiness (kind of like "The To-Do List", also a screwball about a girl trying to get laid), communal camaraderie (kind of like "Booksmart" was in the end) and pitch black "Heathers"-flavored malevolence.
It even tries to add on some sincere arcs about coming-of-age, friendship and budding love, to lesser success on these fronts because despite the observational wit and relatable lead performances, this world of theirs is so deliriously skew (on purpose) that genuine concern for what happens between these people seems like trite conformity to Hollywood standards and practices. Maybe if these moments had been treated with equal silliness, the emotion behind them might've peeked through more, ironically, but as executed, classic scenarios - like the fallout between best friends at the end of the second act, or the last-minute make up embrace by the couple you were rooting for - just beggar belief within this nonsense parade.
That's fine though. You still grow to adore this group, and the weird humor, the deadpan, the sight gags, the over-the-top irreverence all keeps coming at you up through the end. This might be the funniest movie of 2023. It's even nice to pick up on a certain scrappiness to their showmanship, like you can tell that some scenes could've been better staged but these people are relatively new at making movies so they don't get it perfectly right all the time, and yet that recognizable human smudging makes the movie all the more lovable! "Bottoms" wasn't merely smoothed out to *good enough* by studio gladhanding, if that makes any sense. It's like stop motion where you can see the hand prints on the figures. Besides, this is the kind of fresh surprising take on genre formula that movie audiences yearn for (whether they all know it or not), so who cares about margins of error or room for improvement. And as a furiously funny fantasy feminist fable, this is like "Barbie"'s rebellious little sister, another huge winner in that vein coming at us during the very same summer season!
Forgive me for probably misusing this word but for a possibly one-of-these-days seminal movie about young-adult personalities in the 2020s, I gotta try to walk the walk: Ayo Edibiri and Rachel Sennot are so rizz! Er, that is, they bear a unique, magnetic energy and rhythm that really isn't the same as prior generations of teen stars (and yes they're both almost 30 but so were all the teen stars of yore). I think back on my beloved class of late '90s high school movie actors that I came of age with and man they were kinda stiff compared to what these gals are doing here now (except Matthew Lillard. His unbearable idiosyncratic overacting from back then has aged well given how wildly expressive Edibiri and Sennot tend to be) (*note: I always loved Lillard's overacting, was just looking for an excuse to reference it).
You can just see moment to moment how they're both putting thought into how to say their lines (and probably contributing considerable improv), not just reciting them. I could be wrong about this but I think part of why they come off so charmingly is because as acting has grown more realistic over the past many many decades, it's also taken a turn away from ego-protecting flattery too. Those kids in the late '90s were still conscious of their dignity on screen (with one shaggy exception), of how to pose right for the camera during their performances, whereas today's upcoming performers aren't as beholden to formality. Still hyper-aware of the impression they're making but not fenced in by propriety when it comes to image. Edibiri and Sennott don't worry about having on the right makeup or maintaining certain expressions for composure. They're not worried about doing it as professionals; they're giving it their all, ego-free and it's an electrifying upgrade over how it used to be in teen cinema (and this coming from someone who was very fond of both the John Hughes era of young idols and the late '90s one).
Or who knows, maybe this is just naturally how Ayo Edibiri and Rachel Sennott come off in person, and they're simply charismatic human beings. Either way we win and this movie rules. I look forward to seeing it a million more times.
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| Weighted Rating | : 6.8 |
| No. Ratings | : 2 | |
| No. Reviews | : 1 | |
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