When it came to this movie I had no idea what to fully expect from it other than thinking it wasn't going to be my cup of tea. So walking into this movie I had very low expectations which I think worked in this movie's favour. When it comes to the story there's not much implicit in it with the overall message, especially with it being the movie's tagline, being front and centre. I'm actually fine with this being the case here as no matter what it's an important message to have. The movie is all about empowering women to stand up for themselves and be confident in who they are but also about how women should support other women as well. Especially given how this movie takes place in a high school this is an important message to tell and it's handled really well here. It perfectly shows how with the right support group of people everybody can believe in themselves. This is especially important for those who are in high school where it might be hard to be yourself and find that support group. How sometimes the best way for people to find their support group is to push themselves out of their comfort zones to connect with people. Of course, I wouldn't recommend joining an all-girl fight club in order to do so, which is where the other part of the story comes into play. The overall message aside, the story of this movie is such an over-the-top comedy and I surprisingly loved it. The comedy of this movie isn't the kind that I usually enjoy, yet it worked for me here and I think it's due to just how over-the-top it is. Over the years there have been a lot of comedy movies that take place in a high school and this one is able to stand out amongst them. This is primarily due to just how over-the-top the comedy in this movie is and the school system itself. The school is the most stereotypical idea of a school ever where it cares more about its sports team, more specifically the star player, than anything else. I know there are some schools out there where this is true but I don't think any of them are as extreme as what's shown here which is what's funny about it. It's funny to think of a school like this existing and just imagine going there and how awful it would be. But the humour doesn't just stem from the school but also the students that attend it as well. Just like with the school pretty much everybody who attends this school is just a huge walking cliche stereotype. Yet it's because of how cliched the students are that the lines in this movie are hilarious. There are so many funny lines said that might not have gotten a huge laugh from the audience I saw the movie with but I did. The lines are stuff that I could never see anybody ever saying but just like with the school stuff is hilarious to imagine. Pretty much the story just draws you into it and makes you thankful that none of this actually happens in real life. Honestly, the only thing I didn't really like about the story is a nitpick which is how predictable it is. Despite the best efforts from the writers to make it a breath of fresh air it still has a few cliches in it that make it predictable. If they still had done the cliches but instead of fully committing to them and instead changed it then it would've made this movie fully be a breath of fresh air. Another nitpick I had in regard to the story is just how short it is. The movie itself with credits is one hour and thirty-two minutes long and I kind of wish this movie was slightly longer just to fully expand on things. Overall, the story paces itself well, ensuring everything has time to be as fleshed out as possible. With that being said though there are still some moments that I feel like with a longer run time could've been more explored. This is specifically for the club itself as most of what happens in it is in a montage and then we get one scene showing the other side of it and that's it. I wish we got to see more of how this club helped these girls out and how it's given them all a support group. But again that's just a nitpick and doesn't take away from the movie itself as like I said everything is fleshed out pretty well. It's honestly due to how fleshed out the story is that all of the actors have a lot to work with and perfectly capture these characters.
You can easily tell right away that all of the actors in this movie knew and understood what kind of movie it was and were fully committed to it. The best example of this is Nicholas Galitzine, who plays Jeff, and his full commitment to the dumb jock stereotype. Jeff is the most important person to this school and always overlooks whatever he does and makes sure to do anything to keep him happy. With all that being said though Jeff isn't the smartest person out there and is best described as a man-child. So Nicholas Galitzine had the tough job of trying to find a way to balance being over-the-top with this role and still being subtle and I think he found it. He knew when he needed to be over the top with both his actions and line delivery and when he needed to bring it down a notch. It makes for a very entertaining watch where you kind of want to see more of this character despite hating him. When it comes to the main characters though it's thanks to both of their actors that it's easy to both route for them but also hate them. This is specifically true when it comes to PJ and thanks to Rachel Sennott I didn't know how to feel about PJ. PJ is the primary reason for the idea behind the fight club and helping her and Josie to get laid by their crushes. It's due to this reason that the audience starts to feel weird about PJ and their motivations and Rachel Sennott helps cause this super well. Rachel Sennott easily shows how conflicting PJ is as a character as you want to route for her but she just goes about it the wrong way. I enjoyed watching her play this kind of person whom some people can relate to, to some extent of course. For me though the real scene-stealer was Ayo Edebiri as Josie due to being one of the only static characters. The Josie who we see at the start of the movie isn't the same as the one at the end. Sure, she's still this nervous introvert but she still was able to gain some confidence along the way. Ayo Edebiri did a great job of showing the changes Josie goes through and specifically the confidence she gains. It's because of her performance that Josie seems like a real person whom you could meet in real life compared to all of the over exaggerated stereotype characters. This is why I loved watching Ayo Edebiri in every scene she was in because of how relatable Josie was to me. In the end, Bottoms is what you get when you mix Mean Girls and Fight Club together and make it queer. It's a combination that shouldn't work and yet it somehow does and I'm so glad it does. This movie is definitely worth watching at least once just to truly see how crazy it is.
You can easily tell right away that all of the actors in this movie knew and understood what kind of movie it was and were fully committed to it. The best example of this is Nicholas Galitzine, who plays Jeff, and his full commitment to the dumb jock stereotype. Jeff is the most important person to this school and always overlooks whatever he does and makes sure to do anything to keep him happy. With all that being said though Jeff isn't the smartest person out there and is best described as a man-child. So Nicholas Galitzine had the tough job of trying to find a way to balance being over-the-top with this role and still being subtle and I think he found it. He knew when he needed to be over the top with both his actions and line delivery and when he needed to bring it down a notch. It makes for a very entertaining watch where you kind of want to see more of this character despite hating him. When it comes to the main characters though it's thanks to both of their actors that it's easy to both route for them but also hate them. This is specifically true when it comes to PJ and thanks to Rachel Sennott I didn't know how to feel about PJ. PJ is the primary reason for the idea behind the fight club and helping her and Josie to get laid by their crushes. It's due to this reason that the audience starts to feel weird about PJ and their motivations and Rachel Sennott helps cause this super well. Rachel Sennott easily shows how conflicting PJ is as a character as you want to route for her but she just goes about it the wrong way. I enjoyed watching her play this kind of person whom some people can relate to, to some extent of course. For me though the real scene-stealer was Ayo Edebiri as Josie due to being one of the only static characters. The Josie who we see at the start of the movie isn't the same as the one at the end. Sure, she's still this nervous introvert but she still was able to gain some confidence along the way. Ayo Edebiri did a great job of showing the changes Josie goes through and specifically the confidence she gains. It's because of her performance that Josie seems like a real person whom you could meet in real life compared to all of the over exaggerated stereotype characters. This is why I loved watching Ayo Edebiri in every scene she was in because of how relatable Josie was to me. In the end, Bottoms is what you get when you mix Mean Girls and Fight Club together and make it queer. It's a combination that shouldn't work and yet it somehow does and I'm so glad it does. This movie is definitely worth watching at least once just to truly see how crazy it is.
Tell Your Friends