One of the funniest movies to come out of SxSW this year, the new filmmaking powerhouse of Ms. Seligman and Ms. Sennott were one of the biggest breakouts of SxSW this year. BOTTOMS had a loud as hell premiere at the Paramount Theatre early in the festival and also had a terrific repeat screening at the Zach mid-week.
ABOUT: Directed by Emma Seligman and written by Seligman and Rachel Sennott, “Bottoms” follows two unpopular girls in their senior year who start a fight club to try to impress and hook up with cheerleaders.
JASON’S REACTION: What a twisted and sometimes even graphic high school comedy that hits a lot of notes on where we are right now with feminism, gender and of course sexuality. The description mentions the movie as a female FIGHT CLUB and of course there are some similarities to the movie (and a really funny reference to David Fincher), but the brutal fighting between the teenage girls to get all of their anger out, all the while the two girls are exploring their sexuality makes this totally stand out with all the comedies at the festival this year, but of course viewer discretion is strongly advised. Filmmaker Emma Seligman returns to SxSW after SHIVA BABY premiered here as a short in 2018 then a quick and dirty 77 minute feature a few years later, but any style and character similarities don’t exist whatsoever. This movie is loud, bloody and throws so many jokes at you all at once. Not all of them work, of course (and the audience was laughing so loudly that I missed quite a few of them) but this is such a star-making role for Sennott and all of the other leads, and a very R-rated (or 18a where I live) romp that I think will find a huge audience. Universal is putting this out later in the year and I know it will find a big audience (which is the only way to see it).
This film and many others like it will be showing at South By Southwest taking place March 10-19. For more information point your browser to www.sxsw.com!