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The teen comedy drama used to be a cultural mainstay in America but has become just another victim of the streaming era. While most high school films are dumped onto platforms like Netflix in droves, destined to be forgotten or, at most, scrolled past while viewers aimlessly search for something to watch, enduring classics like “10 Things I Hate About You” and “Superbad” seem to have fewer recent films to stand alongside them. Director Emma Seligman’s sophomore feature “Bottoms” is the first film in a long time to potentially join their ranks.

“Bottoms” isn’t just a resuscitation of the teen comedy; it is a window into an alternate universe where Gen Z takes up the mantle, following in the footsteps of their predecessors while charting a new path for high school comedies. Seligman’s second collaboration with actress Rachel Sennott (who also co-wrote the film) is dead set on achieving a timeless status, with a depiction of high school both hysterical in its exaggerations of teen angst and accurate in how it captures the interpersonal dynamics of Generation Z. Though set in an unspecified time and place, “Bottoms” feels refreshingly modern and inspired by the generation of today.

The film quickly introduces us to PJ (Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), two lesbian best friends who want to lose their virginities. Josie, the timid and shy one of the pair, is in love with cheerleader Isabel (Havana Rose Liu). PJ, assertive and (seemingly) more confident, fantasizes in explicit detail about hooking up with Brittany (Kaia Gerber), another cheerleader who is best friends with Isabel.

Seligman establishes a tried-and-true teen movie premise but transforms it into a queer comedy. Here, young lesbian women take on the roles of selfish, yet lovable protagonists typically reserved for heterosexual men.

Our leads soon get a chance to ask out their respective crushes at a carnival celebrating the school’s football team, the Vikings. This scene gives Sennott and Edebiri an early time to shine by bringing their characters’ awkwardness to the forefront. PJ’s boldness from just a scene prior washes away as she bizarrely asks Brittany to go and “digest” hot dogs with her. Josie, who clearly wants to avoid confronting Isabel, struggles her way through a few similarly strange compliments. Seligman plants the seeds for a fun shift in character dynamics by thrusting her inexperienced, impulsive characters into a flirtatious scenario.

Our heroes later witness a fight between Isabel and her current boyfriend Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), the star quarterback of their school’s football team. Isabel hops into a car with PJ and Josie while Jeff begs her to stay. Yelled at by her passengers to hit him, Josie drives forward and lightly bumps into Jeff’s knees, leaving him in such exaggerated pain that his fellow Vikings rush to his aid and vow revenge against the protagonists. The film notably contains few scenes of football actually being played, as the students and even other Vikings — more or less groupies for the team captain — give far more attention to Jeff’s near-godlike status. Here, Seligman cleverly pokes fun at high schools’ obsession with sports, particularly its men’s teams.

Rumors about PJ and Josie spread throughout the school, including a false story that they went to juvie over the summer. Noticing how much attention they’re receiving, including curious gazes from Isabel and Brittany, the duo establishes a fight club with their friend Hazel (Ruby Cruz) under the guise of self-defense and female empowerment — though it’s really just a way for them to hook up with their love interests.

From here “Bottoms” truly comes into its own as its pleasantly surprising incorporation of fight sequences distinguishes it from any other teen movie. There are only a small handful of action set pieces sprinkled throughout its ninety-two-minute runtime and yet they contain more visual clarity, visceral sound design and gleeful gore than most Hollywood blockbusters released recently. The fights help to break up the film’s visual formula, which occasionally falls into a bland shot-reverse shot formula, by reveling in intense and bloody shot compositions.

The club brings a dramatic shift to the central character dynamics. Josie is initially surprised that fighting and lying about going to juvie makes her more attractive to Isabel. She leans into this false presentation of herself to get closer to her crush, developing a toxic narcissism along the way. PJ, on the other hand, grows frustrated that her own lying gets her nowhere. PJ and Josie’s scheme distracts them from the fact that their club works. While the other members bond and feel genuine empowerment from learning to defend themselves, the two founders miss the point themselves.

Sennot and Edebiri skillfully play into this role reversal — their character’s gestures and speech patterns change subtly until they become completely different (and worse) people than they were at the start. Sennott and Edebiri have an infectious chemistry that leaves you wanting more of the pair in future projects.

Seligman smartly gives little regard to the logistics of her central premise. The girls’ fight club is a natural extension of the boundless world she has created, where systematic murders by a rival football team and car bombings committed as acts of revenge against men can occur with absolutely zero legal consequences. Teachers like Mr. G (Marshawn Lynch) care even less about class than the students, who have free reign to chat in the middle of brief, half-hearted lessons.

“Bottoms” is best described as a caricature of a caricature of high school. Teenage angst is often brought to the forefront through several blink-and-you’ll-miss-it visual gags which foster Seligman’s heightened depiction of this world. Female anxieties toward appearance, for instance, are literalized as posters hanging from the school’s walls pressuring girls into looking more beautiful.

Jeff’s “memorabilia” across the school serves as sexualized propaganda (see: all the horned Viking helmets) satirizing how high schools unfairly prioritize male extracurriculars. A later shot even mimics Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” as the Vikings sit at a cafeteria table, while a rendition of Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam,” where Jeff’s face is superimposed onto Adam’s, hangs in the background.

The men of “Bottoms” could hardly be considered characters so much as they are an amalgamation of every stereotype about high school jocks one could think of. Jeff is the butt of many of the film’s jokes, both written and visual, while Galitzine’s performance is ripe with willing self-deprecation. It is a joy to watch him be the buffoon at every turn.

With “Bottoms,” Seligman aims to participate in the tradition of high school comedies and their tropes rather than subvert them. This certainly isn’t to imply, however, that the film is worse for being simpler. It is a comedic examination of the performances teenagers put on to fit in with their often oppressive surroundings, with a remarkable focus on queer relationships and the exploitation of female solidarity. Time will tell if “Bottoms” stands with the all-time great high school comedies, but for now, it’s putting up an incredible fight to enter the conversation.

Published on September 4, 2023 at 9:40 pm