Bottoms (film)

Bottoms is a 2023 American teen sex comedy film directed by Emma Seligman from a screenplay she co-wrote with Rachel Sennott, who also stars opposite Ayo Edebiri. The film is produced by Elizabeth Banks under her Brownstone Productions banner. It follows two high school senior girls (Sennott and Edebiri) who set up a fight club as a guise to hook up with cheerleaders. Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, Nicholas Galitzine, Dagmara Domińczyk, and Marshawn Lynch appear in supporting roles.
Bottoms premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2023, where it received critical acclaim for its humor, characters, and satirical elements. It will be distributed by Orion Pictures through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the United States on August 25, 2023.
==Premise==
Two high school senior girls set up a "fight club" to hook up with cheerleaders before graduation.
==Cast==
* Rachel Sennott as Bella "P.J." Mitchell
* Ayo Edebiri as Josie Thorne
* Havana Rose Liu as Isabel Beale
* Kaia Gerber as Brittany Hobart
* Nicholas Galitzine as Jeff Swanson
* Dagmara Domińczyk as Mrs. Callahan
* Marshawn Lynch as Mr. G
* Ruby Cruz as Hazel Callahan
* Miles Fowler as Tim Phunck
* Punkie Johnson
* Lacey Dover as Cheerleader
* Alyssa Matthews as Fight Club
* Krystal Chambers as Fight Club Girl
* Zamani Wilder as Annie
* Summer Joy Campbell as Sylvie
* Virginia Tucker as Stella Rebecca
* Hunter Prestenback as Chambliss
==Production==
In April 2021 it was announced that Seligman and Sennott were working with Orion Pictures and Brownstone Productions, with Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman, and Alison Small producing for Brownstone, and Alana Mayo producing for Orion. It is the second collaboration between Seligman and Sennott after 2020’s Shiva Baby. Whilst promoting that film, Seligman described her next project as a "campy queer high school comedy in the vein of Wet Hot American Summer but more for a Gen-Z queer audience." In April 2022, it was announced that Ayo Edebiri, Marshawn Lynch, Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, Nicholas Galitzine, Miles Fowler, Dagmara Dominczyk and Punkie Johnson were added to the cast. Filming was scheduled to take place in New Orleans between April 18 and May 27, 2022. On September 12, 2022 it was confirmed by The New York Times that filming had wrapped. Sennott described the film as “two girls in a classic American football town who start a fight club under the guise of female empowerment, but it’s actually so they can have sex with cheerleaders.” 
Eunice Jera Lee served as costume designer on the film. She took inspiration from Grease (1978), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Heathers (1988), Jawbreaker (1999), and Bring It On (2000).
==Release==
Bottoms premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2023. It is set for a limited theatrical release in the United States by Orion Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on August 25, 2023, before expanding on September 1, 2023.
==Reception==
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Bottoms has an approval rating of 96%, based on 25 reviews with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's critical consensus says, "Propulsive and over-the-top, Bottoms is an instant high school comedy classic that feels both current and nostalgic." On Metacritic, which uses weighted average, the film is assigned a score of 79 out of 100, based on 9 reviews indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Reviewing the film for Variety, following its premiere at South by Southwest, Owen Gleiberman commended the direction and screenplay (particularly its characters and humor), stating: "Bottoms is unlike any high-school comedy you’ve ever seen. It’s a satire of victimization, a satire of violence, and a satire of itself. It walks a tightrope between sensitivity and insanity (with a knowing bit of inanity), and it’s full of moments that are defiantly what we once used to call incorrect". Valerie Complex of Deadline admired the lead performances and Seligman's direction, but found some faults with the screenplay, ultimately concluding: "Bottoms is fun, but with some slight tweaks this could have an epic exploration of the gray areas of queerness and what it means to stand in the center of that as an adolescent". Referring to the film as the "horniest, bloodiest high school movie of the 21st century" in a highly enthusiastic review for Rolling Stone, David Fear lauded every aspect of the film, including its direction, screenplay and cast performances.
==References==
==External links==
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Category:2023 comedy films
Category:2023 films
Category:2023 LGBT-related films
Category:2020s American films
Category:2020s coming-of-age comedy films
Category:2020s English-language films
Category:2020s high school films
Category:2020s satirical films
Category:2020s sex comedy films
Category:2020s teen comedy films
Category:American coming-of-age comedy films
Category:American high school films
Category:American LGBT-related films
Category:American satirical films
Category:American sex comedy films
Category:American teen comedy films
Category:Casual sex in films
Category:Female bisexuality in film
Category:Lesbian-related films
Category:LGBT-related comedy films
Category:Teen sex comedy films
Category:Films produced by Elizabeth Banks
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Category:Orion Pictures films