‘Bottoms’ Is The Funniest Movie Of 2023
Bottoms is the best movie of the year and no one can change my mind. Nothing is topping (get it?) a movie about lesbian losers who start a fight club to hookup with hot girls which ultimately descends into chaos and violence. It’s truly one of the most absurdly funny movies and had me cackling at almost every line.
Yes I know that Bottoms has been out overseas for months already but because Australia sucks we are only getting our hands on it now. I saw it at the Australian premiere last month as part of SXSW Sydney and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
This might be dramatic but Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri deserve Oscars for their roles as two gay high school virgins, PJ and Josie. I know they are meant to be losers but I know I’d be best friends with them. Probably because I was a gay loser too.
A large part of the success of Bottoms comes from the director and co-writer Emma Seligman. Emma directed Shiva Baby, also one of my favourite movies, which has a cult following and is adored by the queer community. To have both Shiva Baby and Bottoms under Emma’s belt at such an early point in her career is pretty impressive. Especially when both seem to capture the frustrations and awkwardness of being queer in the 21st century.
Very few movies or TV shows can rapidly land joke after joke in so few lines, each hitting harder than the one before, like Bottoms does. It’s so well-written it genuinely felt like somebody had been recording the conversations my friends and I have at brunch and put it into a movie. It’s nasty, overtly sexual, unhinged, but somehow still respectful of boundaries. That’s because Rachel Sennott and Emma Seligman understand their audience. After all, they are the audience — chronically online queers who have a deep understanding of socio-political issues but can also rattle off any number of memes or TikTok sounds without hesitation. As a result, Bottoms is one of those rare gems that perfectly encapsulates the humour of our generation without making a mockery of it. Bodies Bodies Bodies also achieves this. But while Bodies Bodies Bodies has a political edge to it, Bottoms is the stupidest movie I’ve ever watched. It represents our generation as the sometimes awful people we can be. We are self-serving and borderline narcissistic — but only for the greater good. Want to make out with hot girls who hardly know you exist? Start a fight club under the guise of “female empowerment”. See? Individual goal, group benefits. And it feels real — not just a gimmick or weird caricature.
Like Sex Education, Bottoms doesn’t exist on a specific timeline. It’s a blend of classic high school sex comedies from the ‘80s, ‘90s, and early ‘00s but there’s a strong presence of the fast fashion, TikTok, openly queer world we live in today. One of my favourite quotes from the movie is: “No one hates us for being gay. They hate us for being gay, untalented, and ugly.” Truer words have not been spoken.
Bottoms understands that we tow the politically correct line more than anyone else but we won’t ever cross it. For all the chatter about us being “snowflakes” or “too woke”, Bottoms proves that we can have raunchy, dark comedy that is sexualised. We just don’t have to be gross about it to make it funny. There literally isn’t even a sex scene in Bottoms and it still does a better job of being sexually humorous than other movies.
The physical comedy in Bottoms is a marvel. Rachel Sennott’s facial expressions can turn a mundane line into the funniest thing you’ve ever heard. The movie is so unnecessarily violent but that’s part of its absurdist genius. These girls are full on beating each other up and I ate it right up. I found myself saying “work diva” or “slay” after each punch, kick, and slap. The final fight scene is something to behold.
Bottoms dispels any idea that our generation can’t have fun in movies — or that we’re too politically aware to make dark jokes. It also proves that sapphic romances can be funny without being a punchline from the straight gaze. If there’s any movie to watch this year, it’s Bottoms.
But don’t take my word for it. Julianne Moore called it “one of the best movies this year”.
View this post on Instagram
Ky is a proud Kamilaroi and Dharug person and writer at Junkee. Follow them on Instagram or on X.
Image: MGM