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Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri. © 2023 MGM, Orion Pictures, and Brownstone Productions.
Directed by Emma Seligman.
For Your Consideration (FYC) Screener
Creating a Fight Club Can Help You Get To Your Crush. Fight Club but for lesbians? Well, that is a twist for sure and it does its job well. Director Emma Seligman is back with her sophomore feature Bottoms, after directing and collaborating with Rachel Sennott on her debut film Shiva Baby. A film that not only has laughs, blood, and fighting, but a film that has heart and a sense of awkwardness and love that aren't present in recent high school films. It is a film that caters to Gen Z audiences but it hits the right moments, story elements, and even some nostalgia factor that works in total as a high school film. Yet, it also embraces queer cinema with many risks that pulled off in the end. Let's take a look at the Rockbridge Falls High School yearbook and read about this so-called, "fight club", that everyone is talking about. Wait, I can't talk about Fight Club. Story: Unpopular best friends PJ and Josie start a high school fight club to meet girls and lose their virginity. They soon find themselves in over their heads when the most popular students start beating each other up in the name of self-defense. I had no expectations going into this film and I was surprised with the amount of edgy humor and heart from this film. It is totally bonkers with the comedy and direction Seligman was aiming for. Some of the more recent high school movies don't hit that well-rounded comedy edge or even the aggressiveness that this generation usually finds funny. In my personal experience, the comedy that I grew up on was mostly dark humor throughout high school and there was a lot of mature humor instead of safe humor. Seligman figures it out right from the first scene and keeps the jokes fresh and hilarious throughout while still giving it a meaningful context that makes the joke impactful. Even with some of the unintentional humor, it still naturally works. The amount of references from Fight Club and other high school films like Mean Girls really worked within each scene context and punch-line. From the queer humor to the absurdity of high school drama, the film makes fun of our high school experience and the typical tropes and clichés we see in real-life high school and high school films as well. Even with the bombastic comedy, the story and characters are the strongest core elements that make the comedy funny and even natural.
It is a breeze of a film but the story is engaging throughout with a lot of interesting aspects that keep the story flowing while keeping the energy as high as possible. The friendship between PJ and Josie was strong and their conflicts of the club made their friendship feel like a sinking ship in a good way. Josie being the introverted yet the real leader of the club made me appreciate her character. There were points where I cared more about her rather than PJ. However, I still cared about PJ's journey on her crush but there was more of a focus with Josie in this story. Yet, there is a balance between these characters and everyone has a happy ending by the third act. I was surprised that Rachel Sennott's character PJ, was more of a douchebag and their troubling friendship started to crack in the second act. I thought that relationship was necessary and it worked well with their personal goals they had. Even though PJ was a jerk in the film, her character arc redemption was good and Sennott's performance was hilarious. Of the supporting characters, Hazel (Ruby Cruz) was the most hilarious character from the club group. Her personality is through the roof and she makes the comedy funnier but her dramatic scenes are effective to her character flaws. The smartly written screenplay makes these characters feel real with personal and story stakes that keep the energy of the story still high. Some unexpected moments made the comedy even more funnier and it doesn't waste its time with the awkwardness of certain situations. It is fast and it allows the story to focus on the troubling goals and friendship of PJ and Josie. Even if the story is short, it doesn't waste its time and gets right into the comedy tone and conflicts that create this high energy that Seligman is aiming for and it worked very well. With this film being a much bigger budget compared to her last film, there are a lot of interesting technical elements that she pulled off well.
With this film carrying an 11.3 million dollar budget, it looks more higher with some of its bigger sequences, especially the final act. The cinematography is solid with a lot of well-shot sequences and the coloring is vibrant with its story tone. The production design of the high school and its home game design is nostalgic and the music choices are not that bad. There is some VFX in the film and it looks very clean which I am surprised. Overall, it is a solid well-made film with the budget being used to the max. With all the positives I encountered, I also encountered the flaws that I noticed throughout. There are certain characters that needed to be more developed and some could have been more interesting. Brittany (Kaia Gerber) was the typical popular high school girl that some people didn't like. Her character didn't work for me in the end but I liked her performance. Some of the other characters were okay but PJ's goal to hook up with Brittany wasn't as strong as Josie's journey. It felt like Josie was more of the main character which made PJ's journey a bit underwhelming but it picked up more during the final act. As for the comedy, some jokes didn't land or were a bit cringe. Luckily, it wasn't a lot. Some of the plot elements didn't click for certain scenes like the football team scenes. Those scenes were not good and I didn't care for them by the end. Even with those critiques, Seligman's direction of this story was fresh and fun from beginning to end. From the humor to the typical high school romance, Bottoms takes its spin on the high school sub-genre and makes it hilarious and fun. The comedy hits well, the characters are well-written, and the absurdity of the high school environment is well thought out. It's a simple high school comedy film but Seligman's direction of the story makes this film more engaging and fun. Definitely a surprise film and I can't wait to see what Seligman would do next.
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Vizeit Score: "A-"
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Copyright © 2024 Vizeit Reviews / Vizeit Studios. All Rights Reserved. Review Written By: Everardo Garcia Jr. Editor In-Chief/Owner of Vizeit Reviews | (Chicago Indie Critics Member [CIC])
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