Bottoms Review (2023) – A Wild, Bloody, Riot of Punchlines, Punches, and the Power of Finding Your People!
The world has been feeling like too much recently…too bleak, too loud, too greedy and too cruel. We potatoes know how scary it feels to stand up right now. Even just talking about Pride feels more intimidating than it ever should. But while we potatoes are limited in what we can do, we are still going to do what we can. Speak up where you can. Help where you can. As long as we don’t go quiet, we’re still making a stand—no matter how small.
But, we also have to rest. This world wants to exhaust us into silence, to desensitize us to cruelty. So when it all becomes too much, we potatoes look for something that lifts us, or at least gives us something sharp and silly to laugh about. Enter this week’s film, Bottoms (2023), a film that is as unhinged as it is unexpected, a deliriously campy, gory, queer teen comedy that delivers absurdity, blood, satire, and maybe even a little heart! A film that punches patriarchy in the face and then throws glitter on the wounds. We had a blast!
Before we dive in, soft trigger warning heads-up! Bottoms is full of violence (most of it absurd and stylized), discussions of sexual assault, stalking, manipulation, some pretty gleeful lying, and a lot of blood. It’s framed as a comedy, but it’s not without its edge. Approach with care if you’re sensitive to teen violence, homophobia (though it’s ridiculed), or extremely dark humor.
We will try to avoid spoilers, but please be aware that there will likely be some in this review, so read with caution!
Let’s dive in!
We open on best friends PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), they are at Josie’s house getting ready to go out. These two messy, awkward queer teens are at the bottom of their school’s social hierarchy and struggle to get the attention they want from their crushes. They’re shooting the shit about crushes and the year ahead! “We are getting in the cooch, my girl!” PJ proclaims. Josie is not so confident, “Man, speak for yourself. Nobody’s gonna wanna fuck me this year, just like nobody wanted to fuck me last year or the year before.”
PJ is not impressed with Josie’s attitude and she is determined! They arrive at the Welcome Back to School Fair, and are casually walking around when they both stop to stare…at their crushes, cheerleaders Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber). As they are staring, their friend Hazel pops up. After a quick exchange, Hazel misconstrues some of the conversation. Josie is wearing a sling on her arm, she simply injured it over the summer…but Hazel believes that she must have injured herself in Juvie!
PJ sarcastically responds with a roll of her eyes, “Yeah, we went to juvie.”
Hazel takes it all way too seriously, and kind of runs with it. That will come back up later, but in the meantime, Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine) the star football player bursts, into the Fair with a grand flourish! He runs up to Isabel, they hug and kiss. Josie is none too pleased.
Jeff runs off with his team mates, and best friend Tim (Miles Fowler). While Isabel and Brittany walk over to Josie and PJ. PJ awkwardly tries to flirt with Brittany…it is truly cringe, while Josie just stands nearby awkwardly. PJ tries to pull Josie into the conversation…and it is incredibly awkward and strange. PJ and Josie realize this, and head out to the parking lot to tuck their tails in and leave. “Fuck!” shouts PJ. Josie is yelling too and they are hysterical!
They make it to their car, and are still talking while seated inside. When suddenly, Isabel and Jeff storm into the parking lot arguing. Isabel is clearly upset and trying to get away from Jeff. Josie seizes the opportunity, “Isabel, do you want a safety ride?”
Isabel eagerly and quickly gets into the back seat of their car, while Jeff tries to stop them by standing in front of the car. He keeps poorly pleading his case but Isabel does not want to hear any of it. “Move, you prick!”
He won’t leave, and is throwing a literal tantrum to try to get Isabel to get out of the car. “You’re being really mean right now.” We could not roll our eyes harder at this child.
Getting tired of the nonsense, Isabel urges Josie to just start the car and move forward. “He’ll move.” Josie barely taps the accelerator and the bumper of her car touches Jeff’s knee. You read that right. It does not slam into his knee. It does not crash into his knee. It does not even tap his knee. Just barely touches his knee…and yet he falls to the ground dramatically! Sobbing loudly! Miles speed runs over to him, drops onto the ground and pulls Jeff into his lap.
The girls leave in a panic! Tim screams into the heavens, “They’re not gonna get away with this!”
We are going to wrap it up from here to avoid too many spoilers!
PJ and Josie are a riot! They’re sarcastic, chaotic, and more than a little unhinged in their pursuit of their respective crushes. As word of them spending the summer in Juvie gains more and more traction throughout the school, PJ comes up with an idea! The plan? Start a fight club for girls. Under the guise of female empowerment. But mostly? It’s about getting laid.
Yes. That’s the actual plot!
And somehow… it works!
The tone is anarchic from the jump. Think Heathers meets Wet Hot American Summer with a splash of Scott Pilgrim and just a touch of Mean Girls, if Mean Girls had been written by someone in a fever dream. The world is a hyper-stylized, cheerleader-obsessed, football-worshipping high school hellscape where the rules of logic, gender, and gravity bend at will. And within that world, PJ and Josie thrive—not because they’re noble or pure—but because they are absolute gremlins of chaos! And we potatoes love them for it!
PJ is brash and loud. Josie is anxious and panicked. Neither of them is especially heroic, and that’s part of the fun! These girls are not sanitized. They lie, scheme, fight dirty, and make mistake after mistake. But they’re also deeply loyal to each other and weirdly earnest in their desire to claw their way toward something real. The messiness is the point. It’s a celebration of queer weirdos who get to be flawed and ridiculous and still take center stage.
The fight club itself? Bloody. Hilarious. Cathartic. Girls beating the shit out of each other in a dingy gym? It's deranged. It's glorious. And somehow it becomes a space for connection, healing, rage, and release. Also chaos. So much chaos!
We potatoes have much to get to, but we have to take a moment to praise Ayo Edebiri! Her performance as Josie is a masterclass in comedic timing. The facial expressions alone could carry the entire movie. Her panic attacks, her stammering confessions, her bursts of wild confidence, they’re all pitch-perfect. We couldn’t get enough of her.
Rachel Sennott, too, is a powerhouse. PJ is awful in the most entertaining way, and Sennott plays her with just enough vulnerability to make you root for her even when she’s kind of the worst.
There’s also the gym teacher, Mr. G (Marshawn Lynch—yes, that Marshawn Lynch!), who accidentally supports the club while being hilariously and often shockingly inappropriate. It shouldn’t work, but it really, really does. His scenes are some of the funniest in the film!
And let’s not forget the cheerleaders! Isabel and Brittany are not just love interests, they’re funny, weird, and surprisingly layered. The whole cast is clearly having a blast, and the chemistry is electric. Every character feels just a little bit heightened, like they’re all in on the joke and daring you to catch up!
Now, Bottoms isn’t subtle. It’s not meant to be. It throws satire like a dodgeball to the face and dares you to flinch. But beneath the blood and the jokes is a surprisingly heartfelt core. This is a film about friendship, about outsiders clinging to each other in a world that constantly devalues them. About rage and lust and longing, and the very real need to punch something (or someone) every once in a while.
At its core, Bottoms is a blood-spattered satire of high school patriarchy. A gleeful, unrelenting takedown of the systems that reward violence in boys and silence in girls. The entire premise, queer girls starting a fight club to get laid, wouldn’t work if the film didn’t so boldly and smartly exaggerate the ridiculousness of gendered double standards. The football players are literal golden gods, idolized no matter how stupid, violent, or predatory they are, while girls are dismissed, objectified, or entirely invisible unless they play the role expected of them.
The way the school and community protects the male athletes, downplays their harm, and punishes female anger feels all too familiar. By creating a world where the sexism is cranked up to absurdity, the film exposes how real and insidious those dynamics are in the everyday. PJ and Josie’s antics may be unhinged, but their rage is deeply valid and Bottoms dares to imagine what happens when that rage is no longer quiet or palatable. It’s cathartic, it’s hilarious, and it’s a call to arms wrapped in glitter and blood.
But Bottoms doesn’t stop at skewering external misogyny, it also turns a sharp, self-aware eye on internalized sexism, particularly within its leads. PJ, in particular, is a walking mess of bad decisions, and her fixation on Brittany often borders on entitlement. She doesn’t just like Brittany… she objectifies her, idolizing her looks and popularity while never really trying to know her as a full person. It’s funny, sure, but it’s also a clever critique of how even women can fall into the trap of replicating patriarchal thinking: seeing other women as trophies or symbols instead of people.
Josie is a little less chaotic, but she still gets caught up in the fantasy of desirability, equating value with attention from her crush. The film doesn’t excuse this behavior, but it does contextualize it. Showing how even those who are marginalized can absorb the very systems that exclude them. And through all the mayhem, Bottoms asks its characters (and its audience) to do better, not by being perfect, but by getting honest about the damage we carry and cause.
This really resonated with us potatoes, we all have internalized biases and beliefs that are not healthy and can be harmful to ourselves as well as others. It is important that we as individuals do the work to detangle, and disengage from homophobic, patriarchal, misogynistic and other harmful modes of thinking, believing and being. It is on us as individuals and as a society, to do better, and be better. To be the kindness, love and tolerance that we want to see in the world. To fight for what is right and to not let hatred and bigotry win. To keep punching back just like PJ and Josie! But we digress!
And then there’s Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine)! Peak jock, full-time menace, and the film’s crown jewel of satirical absurdity. He struts through the halls in his football uniform like it’s a second skin (because it basically is, none of the football players ever take theirs off!), a walking symbol of unearned confidence and unchecked privilege. Jeff is showy, ridiculous, emotionally coddled, and constantly surrounded by teammates who treat his every tantrum like a national crisis! Especially his hilariously devoted best friend Tim. He’s both a send-up of the classic high school villain and a painfully accurate reflection of how often men are protected, praised, and indulged no matter how ridiculous or dangerous their behavior becomes. The acting is truly something else and we mean that in the best possible way! It’s all so over-the-top, but that’s the point…and Jeff is hysterical!
We potatoes love this movie! But, we will say, it’s not for everyone! The humor is very specific. It’s aggressive, messy, and at times wildly immature. If you’re looking for a grounded coming-of-age story with nuance and realism, this is not it. If you’re looking for a gonzo explosion of blood, jokes, fighting the patriarchy and unapologetic queerness, buckle up!
Our critiques? Not many, honestly! The pacing is tight, the editing is zippy, and the comedy lands more often than not! There are a few moments where the film veers so far into absurdity that the emotional stakes wobble, but it always finds its footing again. And we potatoes were too busy laughing and cheering to care!
And we do want to pause and appreciate the sheer joy of seeing queer girls get to be this chaotic. We are so often reduced to trauma porn or sanitized support characters. Bottoms says screw that. Be messy. Be hilarious. Be loud. Be proud. Be unhinged sometimes. And most importantly…be human. Be everything.
So! If you’re in the mood for a high school movie that flips the bird at every convention, that delivers blood-soaked female bonding, queer romance, and a finale that’s part pep rally, part Mad Max then this one’s for you! We potatoes had such a blast watching it and we highly recommend it!
Cheers to PJ and Josie! For choosing each other, for embracing the chaos, and for being the chaos gremlins we didn’t know we needed! For being gloriously, wildly, unapologetically themselves. Cheers to the women and girls with bruised knuckles and big feelings. Cheers to love in all of its variety and forms! And most importantly… cheers to you! If you haven’t thrown a punch (metaphorical or otherwise) lately, maybe this movie will inspire you to start a fight club of your own or to join one of the many protests happening around the country! Fight the power!
We give this movie 5 out of 5 Pineapple Martini’s!
The Bottoms Drinking Game
Take a sip anytime:
1. Anyone swears
2. Anyone mentions Juvie
3. Anyone obsesses about their crush
4. Anyone says Fight Club
5. Anyone says Self Defense
6. Anyone says Jeff
7. Anyone says Huntington or Ferrets
8. Football players in full gear on screen
9. School poster on screen
10. Fighting on screen
11. Jeff says or does something stupid/is a prick
12. Tim is creepy/fixated on Jeff
13. Josie and PJ have negative rizz
14. PJ is mean
15. Hazel is tolerant of PJ and Josie's shit
16. Sylvie has a big reaction
What did you think? Did you like the movie? Did you hate it? What movies should we watch? Any and all thoughts are welcome! Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly!
What do you think? Do you like this drinking game? Are there rules missing? Is the game too intense? Are there movies that you think we should make a drinking game for? Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly! (Drinks can be water, soda, anything nonalcoholic, etc. Please be safe, have fun and take care of you!)