Not going to lie, I almost didn’t see this one because 1. The poster is awful (I am a designer, leave me alone); 2. The few seconds I did watch from the trailer did not impress me; and 3. I was getting tired of misrepresented LGBTQ+ individuals within movies as they seem to always be stereotyped, cliched, and way over the top. As with the Haunted Mansion (my review is on YouTube), I was FULLY surprised by how GREAT this movie actually turned out to be, and I left the theaters thinking how OVERJOYED I was to have seen it in theaters.
Honestly, Ayo Edibiri alone was the main reason why I decided to see this movie. She’s, as always, is a stand out, but Rachel Sennott would often steal the scene with her performance as PJ. Both girls are insanely funny with Marshawn Lynch, alongside the rest of the supporting cast, gets their own moments to shine and they hit their comedic mark, elevating the script.
What’s funny is you can’t really tell what time period this takes place. At times you think it might be the 2000s, at others, you might assume it’s modern day. Honestly, the fact you can’t tell makes this movie an instant classic as it’s not relying on humor from that period but rather on humor itself. To the movie’s amazing credit, it feels oddly nostalgic; that’s great thanks to both the director, Emma Seligman, and the producer, Elizabeth Banks. If you don’t know Elizabeth Banks, well, shame on you. Just kidding, no shame, but a great place to start would be the Pitch perfect series as those are a staple for Elizabeth Banks’ humor, which is a mixture of nostalgic and modern, so both the older and the younger generation can enjoy the film.
In any case, Bottoms is super funny and VERY clever. The plot is basic, but the pacing is gripping. I thought I would, at the very least, “start to feel it” towards the second act as I usually do with modern movies nowadays, but that feeling that it MIGHT just start to drag never came. In fact, I looked down at my watch expecting to have seen one and a half hours pass by and only fifty minutes had passed by; I was floored. The writing is THAT good. Of course, it does have some flaws here and there, but what movie doesn’t? The script is meta and you have to take it all with a grain of salt at most times, especially in the third act when everything, as they say, “pops off.”
All in all, Bottoms is a really well produced film from the writing, to the directing, and the acting. I give Bottoms a 9.3 (93%) or an A-