'Bottoms' Is Even Better Than You Think (Review)
'Bottoms' Is Even Better Than You Think (Review)
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00:00 This video is brought to you by Raycon.
00:01 This last week I saw Bottoms, the latest from Emma Seligman.
00:04 If the name doesn't ring a bell, she did Shivababy, a fantastic little independent
00:08 film that went places nobody could have seen coming.
00:10 Bottoms is the follow up and has been described as a queer fight club starring Rachel Sennett
00:14 and Ayo Adebri, and I've been looking forward to it for about 3 years now.
00:17 See, sometimes I know what movies I'm going to talk about weeks in advance, like I knew
00:21 the world needed my thoughts on The Little Mermaid way before I saw it.
00:24 And that said, I didn't think I'd be making a video about Bottoms, but after seeing it,
00:27 I kinda felt like I had to.
00:29 Because not only is it a great movie, but it also is sort of a movie I've been waiting
00:33 for for a very long time.
00:35 Let's get into it.
00:37 Bottoms is about two high school friends who start a fight club to try and hook up with
00:39 their crushes and lose their virginities.
00:41 It has been one hell of a summer for comedies written and directed by women with music from
00:45 Charlie XCX because man is this funny.
00:47 I will say, I'd understand if maybe it's not some people's sense of humor, it ended
00:51 up being a lot weirder than I was expecting it to be with some of its jokes.
00:54 Cannot recommend this one to my mom, that's what I will say.
00:57 But I thought this was a hoot.
00:58 I feel like when doing a comedy where a lot of the jokes are about feminism, it's really
01:02 easy to lose control of the joke and have the end result come off preachy instead of
01:06 funny.
01:07 Not that preachy is necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't what you want when you're
01:10 seeking out a comedy.
01:11 A great example is a handful of modern SNL sketches that fall victim to this.
01:15 But Bottoms sticks the landing pretty much every time, which is kind of a miracle.
01:19 Even simple bits, like the supervisor crossing out the word feminism on the chalkboard, land
01:24 so well.
01:25 But it happens because of the way Marshawn Lynch delivers it, because it happens as the
01:29 beat drops and Avril Lavigne's complicated, because of the devastating context within
01:33 the scene.
01:34 I wouldn't say any of the jokes here are lazy, they don't feel like they plug them
01:37 into a machine, it truly feels like just a bunch of silly and sometimes stupid bits that
01:41 a bunch of friends wrote together that eventually ended up in a movie.
01:45 Which is how some of the best teen comedies were conceived.
01:48 The film is jam-packed with jokes, which really is refreshing to see.
01:51 Even if I didn't laugh at every joke in the film, I would much rather a comedy be
01:55 overflowing with bits, instead of me having to search for them.
01:58 The effectiveness of the comedy can be owed to the lead performances from Ayo Debri and
02:02 Rachel Sennett, they both are so good.
02:04 With Rachel Sennett, I feel like she played her one-noted character and bodies really
02:07 well, but this finally feels like a character with some real depth and nuance, and I thought
02:11 she brought it home.
02:12 As far as I'm concerned, this is the only Rachel Sennett performance I saw this summer.
02:16 The Idol?
02:17 No, sorry, I don't know what you're talking about, I've never heard of it.
02:18 That said, Ayo Debri really does make the film.
02:21 She plays the awkward Michael Cera type dweeb, but again, adds a lot of depth to the character
02:25 without ever losing sight of the comedy.
02:26 I don't want to spoil it, but there's a scene later in the film in her bedroom that
02:30 is so funny and exciting, and I just loved it.
02:33 I should really catch up with the bear, shouldn't I?
02:35 Honestly, one of the standouts for me was Marshawn Lynch, as in the former NFL player.
02:39 He plays the club supervisor in the film, the coach, and I thought he was so funny in
02:44 pretty much every scene he was in.
02:47 I just was so surprised and glad that he killed it.
02:50 Also feel the need to mention Nicholas Galadzicin, who plays the hot, popular jock Jeff.
02:56 I thought he was good and fun, but I will say, kind of a shame that this had to come
03:00 out after Barbie.
03:01 It's hard to play this specific kind of character after Ryan Gosling's Ken.
03:05 Kind of makes this seem like a diet version of that, even if it's still pretty good.
03:08 A lot of teen comedies write off cinematography, but Bottom seems to actually pay some attention
03:12 to it.
03:13 Lots of wide, static shots that depict the school as a really sterile and tough environment
03:17 to navigate.
03:18 The choice to go handheld as things start to crumble for the main characters also works
03:22 really well.
03:23 This isn't groundbreaking stuff, don't get me wrong, but it just shows a level of
03:26 extra care was put towards the filmmaking they don't see often in this genre.
03:30 I will say though, I do think Seligman's chops as a filmmaker shine brightest in that
03:34 dramatic section of the film in the third act, when things start falling apart.
03:37 Personally, I way more prefer Emma Seligman doing stressful, uncomfortable filmmaking
03:41 than the static, absurdly comedic stuff.
03:44 Maybe that's just me though.
03:45 But let's stop beating around the bush here.
03:47 That's all fine and great, but why was this the kind of movie I've been waiting for?
03:50 What is so special about it?
03:52 Well, it feels like for the last five years, people have been waiting for another classic
03:55 comedy film.
03:56 Everyone wants another Superbad, and how can you blame them?
03:59 When you look at what we have now, the world just hasn't had something like that in a
04:03 while.
04:04 Even if When the World Gives is one of the funniest and most original comedies of its
04:07 time, it doesn't go nearly as far as it should with its popularity, and it ultimately
04:11 feels like it just disappears.
04:12 Booksmart was blatantly attempting to fill that spot, and I like Booksmart, don't
04:16 get me wrong.
04:17 But looking back at it, I wouldn't call it a classic.
04:19 That's a big one I should have had in my changed opinions video now that I think about
04:22 it.
04:23 It's just a fun, cute movie, but it doesn't have the grime or grit.
04:27 It doesn't feel loose, or like it's got its own immature flaws.
04:30 It's too clean.
04:31 And this isn't me calling Bottoms a classic less than a week after its release, don't
04:34 get me wrong.
04:35 Only time can decide on that, as I've learned many times before.
04:38 In fact, Bottoms is pretty unconcerned with a classic status, as it should be.
04:44 You see, movies like Booksmart, and fuck it, Billy Eichner's Bros, again, movies that
04:48 I do like, their whole approach is taking a classic formula that has been proven to
04:53 work, a formula that we've seen before, and modernizing it, giving the queer community
04:56 a film that represents that experience.
04:58 And again, there's nothing wrong with that, these are good movies.
05:01 But the thing about plugging this representation into classic formulas is that those classic
05:05 formulas were outdated for reasons beyond their lack of representation.
05:09 They represented a glamorized side of the teen experience, or romance.
05:13 And there's nothing wrong with that, again, we go to the movies to escape.
05:16 But what I'm saying is that to really grab hold of the current generation, and give them
05:20 the film they've been asking for, the one where they can feel seen, you gotta make your
05:24 main characters just absolute losers.
05:27 I mean, look at Superbad, they suck, those guys, but that's like what teenage boys are.
05:33 Rather than plugging queer characters into the teen comedy genre, Bottoms actually acknowledges
05:38 the genre, and then deconstructs it, makes fun of it, but never loses sight of its satisfying
05:43 crowd-pleasing appeal.
05:44 The characters aren't perfect, the movie isn't perfect, the world of the film is ridiculous,
05:48 but that's the charm of it, right?
05:50 And by doing so, you get a really bizarre and unique experience.
05:54 It's not the next Superbad, it's the first Bottoms, you know?
05:56 And at the end of the day, when you make something this unique, this authentic, you get something
06:00 that has a way better chance at sticking with its audience than any of the other recent
06:05 films I mentioned.
06:06 So if you can't tell, I really loved it, you'll probably love it.
06:08 I can't recommend it enough.
06:10 So thanks for watching, go watch Bottoms, inform your own opinion, and just check out
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07:23 (Outro Music)