Supergay: ‘Bottoms’ takes on high school from a raunchy lesbian point of view

If this was 20 years ago, Bottoms would kill on the gay & lesbian film festival circuit. As someone who has written about LGBTQ film fests in the past, I found this uber-zany, proudly queer, teen burlesque just the kind of fun, frivolous nonsense programmers would look for to balance out the slew of well-meaning dramas and documentaries that would nevertheless bum everyone — gay, straight, whatever — the fuck out.

But this is 2023, and queer culture is all over movies, television, streaming, etc. From Barbie's homoerotic humor (weren't those Kens more into each other than the Barbies?) to Jason Momoa being the Fast and Furious franchise's first sexually ambiguous villain to the alpha-bro in the latest A24 scarefest Talk to Me being played by a trans actor to Disney's The Haunted Mansion, directed by gay director Justin Simien, quietly hinting that Tiffany Haddish and Jamie Lee Curtis could have a wonderful life together, it's been a, shall we say, fabulous time at the movies this summer.

Bottoms belongs in the more low-budget, indie section of the multiplex. After giving us the claustrophobic comedy Shiva Baby, director Emma Seligman (who is herself gay) and actress Rachel Sennott once again team up to drop their own take on the raunchy teen-sex farce. This time, the desperate, virginal protagonists looking to land some tantalizing teenage girls are teenage girls themselves.

Sennott reunites with the ubiquitous Ayo Edebiri (they starred in the very short-lived Comedy Central web series Ayo and Rachel Are Single) to play PJ and Rosie, two high-school seniors/nerdy lesbians who have crushes on the resident popular cheerleaders (models Havana Rose Liu and Kaia Gerber). When word gets out that their school's rival football team is attacking students, PJ and Josie set up a self-defense club for the female students. Of course, they don't know a damn thing about defending themselves. But since the student body thinks PJ and Rosie have been in juvie (a long story) — and their crushes join the club — they run with the lie.

Bottoms is an hour and 32 minutes of Seligman and Sennott indulging in the same adolescent, horndog fantasies male filmmakers have been slapping on the big screen for generations. Sennott and Edebiri basically play the queer female versions of Jonah Hill and Michael Cera's lustful teen losers from Superbad. Sennott fearlessly goes into asshole mode at every turn, as her character is so steadfast in her mission to get into a girl's pants, she doesn't mind alienating her fellow teenage queer brethren. As for Edebiri, who often acts like a female Donald Glover, she serves as the sheepish straight (pardon the pun) man.

Since this is a comedy written and directed by women, the shenanigans are more satirical — and more feminist. The football-playing boys are constantly in full uniform, all looking like ditzy-ass versions of Kevin from Daria. In fact, the majority of the male characters are gotdamn fools. Leading the charge is former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, scoring laughs as a false-fact-spewing, going-through-a-divorce teacher who becomes the girls' club sponsor.

As enjoyable as it is watching teen girls be just as horny as the guys, I often felt like the lunacy would get away from Seligman and Sennott. The movie's such a Mad Magazine-style parody of high school, much of it felt like farce for the sake of farce. Then again, maybe that's the point; many people will tell you that high school was the most absurd, insane time of their lives. As far as R-rated teen comedies for the ladies go, Bottoms is certainly a more exuberant — and exuberantly gay (in every sense of the word) — film than Olivia Wilde's Booksmart.

Bottoms is playing now at Enzian Theater and other area theaters.