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Bottoms (film)

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Bottoms
Theatrical release poster
Directed byEmma Seligman
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMaria Rusche
Edited byHanna Park
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • March 11, 2023 (2023-03-11) (SXSW)
  • August 25, 2023 (2023-08-25) (United States)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$11.3 million[2]
Box office$7.9 million[3][4]

Bottoms is a 2023 American teen[5] sex comedy[6][7] film directed by Emma Seligman, from a screenplay she wrote with Rachel Sennott. It stars Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz (in her feature film debut), Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, Nicholas Galitzine, Miles Fowler, Dagmara Domińczyk, and Marshawn Lynch, and follows two high school senior girls (Sennott and Edebiri) who set up a fight club as a way to hook up with cheerleaders.

Bottoms premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2023,[8] and was released in the United States on August 25, 2023 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film received positive reviews from critics, with particular praise aimed at its direction and cast performances.

Plot

PJ and Josie are two lesbian best friends at Rockbridge Falls High School who have never had sex. Josie pines for Isabel, a popular cheerleader, while PJ is infatuated with Isabel's best friend and fellow cheerleader Brittany. At the beginning of their school year, PJ and Josie, joined by their friend Hazel, attend the state fair, where they witness Isabel and her boyfriend Jeff, the quarterback of the Rockbridge Falls Vikings, having an argument. Isabel gets into PJ and Josie's car, and they softly bump Jeff's kneecaps. Jeff falls to the ground, feigning severe injury.

When school starts, rumors spread that PJ and Josie were both in juvenile detention over the summer and that the girls had physically fought Jeff. When Principal Meyers threatens them with expulsion, Josie falsely claims that they were simply practicing for a feminist "self-defense club". PJ and Josie decide to actually set up the self-defense club in the name of female self-empowerment, though they secretly want to use it to get attractive girls to have sex with them. They ask Mr. G, a careless teacher currently going through a divorce, to be their advisor.

The club grows closer through their chaotic and violent practice, while PJ and Josie continue their lie about attending juvie. Hazel witnesses her mom having sex with Jeff and tells PJ and Josie. Josie tells Isabel, and Isabel breaks up with Jeff in front of the student body in the cafeteria. The club decide to vandalize Jeff's house with eggs and toilet paper, though Hazel builds a bomb that blows up his car. Faced with the club's disbandment, PJ and Hazel have a fight, where PJ humiliates Hazel for being a loner. The following evening, Josie invites Isabel to her room, where they have sex. Meanwhile, Brittany invites PJ to her room. Upon PJ kissing her, Brittany protests that she is straight.

At the pep rally for the upcoming football game against Huntington High School, Tim, a fellow Vikings player, calls on Hazel to fight a wrestler in combat, which ends with her severely injured. Tim subsequently reveals the lies behind PJ and Josie's "fight club", publicly humiliating them. PJ and Josie have a verbal fight, and the two are ostracized at school.

Josie seeks advice from Rhodes, her childhood babysitter, who reveals that Huntington intends to kill a Rockbridge football player at the upcoming game. Hoping to prevent this, PJ and Josie rekindle their friendship, and then make up with Hazel and the rest of the girls in the club, though they are unable to recruit Isabel and Brittany. They realize Huntington High has tied several large barrels of pineapple juice into the football field's sprinkler system to cause a deadly allergic reaction for Jeff.

After a bomb attached to a tree fails, PJ and Hazel divert everyone's attention by publicly making out. Upon the arrival of Huntington High's team, Isabel and Brittany rejoin the club and a brutally bloody brawl ensues between the players and the fight club. The girls kill much of the team and render the rest unconscious, ending with Rockbridge's victory via forfeit. Josie and Isabel embrace with a kiss. The tree bomb finally explodes, interrupting the celebration.

Cast

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 third collaboration between Seligman and Sennott after the 2018 short film Shiva Baby and her 2020 feature-length adaptation.[9] 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."[10]

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.[11][12] Filming was scheduled to take place in New Orleans between April 18 and May 27, 2022.[13] 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.”[14]

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).[15]

Music

Main article: Bottoms (soundtrack)

Release

Bottoms premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2023.[16]

It was given a limited theatrical release in the United States by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on August 25, 2023, before expanding to additional screens on September 1, 2023. It was also released theatrically in Canada on the same day.[17] Internationally, the film is set to be released on Amazon Prime Video.[18]

Reception

Box office

As of September 11, 2023, Bottoms has grossed $7.9 million in the United States and Canada.[3][4]

The film opened in limited release at ten theaters in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin, grossing $461,052 in its opening weekend, making for a per-theater average of $46,105.[19] This was the highest per-screen average on ten or more screens since Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).[20][21] The film expanded to 715 theaters in its second weekend, making $3 million, and a total of $3.58 million over the four-day Labor Day frame.[22]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 151 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Propulsive and over-the-top, Bottoms is an instant high school comedy classic that feels both current and nostalgic."[23] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[24] Audiences polled PostTrak gave the film a 93% positive score, with women under 25 giving it 98% score and 96% saying they would definitely recommend it.[25]

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".[26] 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 been an epic exploration of the gray areas of queerness and what it means to stand in the center of that as an adolescent".[27] 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.[28]

References

  1. ^ "Leo Birenberg & Charli XCX Scoring Emma Seligman's 'Bottoms'". FilmMusicReporter. March 10, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  2. ^ Goldsmith, Jill (September 3, 2023). "Talk To Me Tops Hereditary As A24's Highest-Grossing Horror; Bottoms Nails Nationwide Expansion – Specialty Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Bottoms (2023)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved September 12, 2023.Edit this at Wikidata
  4. ^ a b "Bottoms". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  5. ^ "'Bottoms' review: Broken noses and bloodshed mark this refreshingly unhinged teen comedy". USA TODAY. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
  6. ^ "Behind 'Bottoms,' the wild, queer and bloody high school sex comedy coming to theaters". AP News. August 22, 2023. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
  7. ^ Radulovic, Petrana (August 31, 2023). "Bottoms mocks retro raunchy high school sex comedies — but it still is one". Polygon. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
  8. ^ "2023 SXSW Film Festival Lineup". SXSW. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  9. ^ "Shiva Baby' Team Sets Comedy 'Bottoms' With Orion Pictures, Brownstone Productions". Hollywood Reporter. April 6, 2021.
  10. ^ Shiva Baby Q&A: #BJFF2020 Conversation with director Emma Seligman. Boston Jewish Film. November 18, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2022 – via YouTube.: 39:07–39:45 
  11. ^ "'Shiva Baby' director Emma Seligman lines up cast on Orion Pictures sex comedy". Screen Daily.
  12. ^ "KAIA GERBER LANDS NEXT ACTING ROLE IN UPCOMING FILM 'BOTTOMS'". Grazia. April 14, 2022.
  13. ^ "Productions". Film New Orleans. Archived from the original on May 10, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  14. ^ Conway, Megan (September 12, 2022). "Rachel Sennott Just Wants You to Have the Time of Your Life". New York Times.
  15. ^ Peng, Elizabeth (March 31, 2023). "Bottoms Asks the Question: 'What Do You Wear to a Queer Fight Club?'". Vogue. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  16. ^ "2023 SXSW Film Festival Lineup". SXSW. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  17. ^ Bottoms [@bottomsmovie] (June 5, 2023). "high school is gonna leave a mark. trailer tomorrow!! #BottomsMovie in select theaters August 25 + additional cities September 1" (Tweet). Retrieved June 6, 2023 – via Twitter.
  18. ^ Bottoms [@bottomsmovie] (August 25, 2023). "hiii #BottomsMovie is coming internationally to Prime Video. More details to come soon!!" (Tweet). Retrieved September 3, 2023 – via Twitter.
  19. ^ "Domestic 2023 Weekend 34". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  20. ^ Goldsmith, Jill (August 27, 2023). "'Bottoms' Is Tops For MGM As Raunchy Teen Comedy Sees $500k Opening In Limited Release – Specialty Box Office". Deadline Hollywood.
  21. ^ Lang, Brent (August 27, 2023). "Box Office: 'Gran Turismo' Narrowly Outraces 'Barbie' With Middling $17.3 Million". Variety.
  22. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 3, 2023). "'Equalizer 3' Notches Second-Best Opening Ever At Labor Day Box Office With $42M; Summer Clicks Past $4 Billion". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  23. ^ "Bottoms". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved September 10, 2023. Edit this at Wikidata
  24. ^ "Bottoms". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  25. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 28, 2023). "'Gran Turismo' Revs $17.4M, 'Barbie' $15.1M In Warner Bros & Sony Battle During National Cinema Day Weekend – Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  26. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (March 12, 2023). "'Bottoms' Review: Emma Seligman's Wild Ride of a High School Comedy Is a Gonzo Gay 'Fight Club' Meets 'Heathers'". Variety. Retrieved March 12, 2023.
  27. ^ Complex, Valerie (March 12, 2023). "'Bottoms' Review: Rachel Sennott And Ayo Edebiri Star In Emma Seligman's Comedy That's Soaked In Blood, Sweat, And Queerness – SXSW". Deadline. Retrieved March 12, 2023.
  28. ^ "'Bottoms' Is the Horniest, Bloodiest High School Movie of the 21st Century". Rolling Stone. March 12, 2023. Retrieved March 12, 2023.
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