A Review

Here I was thinking "Barbie" was going to be the wildest and strangest comedy about empowerment I would watch all year. Enter "Bottoms," a rowdy, acidic farce that throws everything at the wall and doesn't care if it sticks or not. And is so entertaining while doing it that I didn't either. This movie was a blast.

Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri star as a pair of unpopular lesbian high school students who form a self-defense club as part of an attempt to hook up with attractive popular girls, under the guise of teaching them to fend for themselves after a series of attacks perpetrated by a rival high school. Picture "Fight Club" by way of a female-led "Revenge of the Nerds." This is the 2nd film from Emma Seligman, who's previous dark comedy "Shiva Baby" I also highly recommend.

Bottoms is a very chaotic comedy with absurdities occurring in virtually every frame. I think I'd have to watch this movie at least twice to ensure I noticed everything. Sometimes things are happening in the background that are more entertaining than what's going on in front. Rather than subverting teenage archetypes, "Bottoms" inflates them to a ridiculous degree, but the characters carry with them so much humanity and the story runs so deep that it never devolves into a SNL skit. The bursts of violence are real enough that they don't come off as juvenile, but not so savage that they kill the movie's sense of joy, and in the end it's not about vengeance or even hooking up. It's ultimately a story of affirmation.

Everyone in the cast is terrific, from the main protagonists to the supporting players, and even former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch as the menacing history teacher/club advisor. With sports figures such as Tom Brady and LeBron James shamelessly plastering their names on dreck like "80 for Brady" and "Space Jam: A New Legacy," it's assuring knowing there's at least one sports star with some actual taste.