Josie: Annie, you may be a black Republican, but you're the smartest out of all of us.

Director Emma Seligman switches from drama to satire as she explores sexuality and womanhood through the world of high-school in Bottoms, challenging the tropes of the genre.

Bottoms is about PJ and Josie (Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri respectively), two teenage girls who identify as lesbians in a school where they feel like outcasts due to their sexual orientation and the (terrible teenage) fact that they are still virgins. They want to connect with the popular cheerleaders who are in heterosexual relationships, mainly for sexual reasons. This leads them to come up with a plan to create a self-defense club to spend time with and eventually seduce the cheerleaders. Light is shed on the hurdles and complexities faced by young lesbians in a society that often struggles to understand or accept their identity, displaying how far they have to go in order to be recognized or acknowledged.

PJ and Josie start the self-defense club at school, but, without expecting it, it quickly becomes popular with other girls, as it helps them release their frustrations, break free from societal norms, and assert themselves. Bottoms skillfully incorporates both humorous and awe-inspiring fight scenes among the girls, highlighting their strength and determination. Additionally, the narrative highlights the girls' solidarity and their joint efforts to safeguard one another against the obstacles presented by some of the boys (especially the football teams) who exhibit behaviors such as harassment, deceit, or manipulation. It exhibits the strength and unity of young women in the face of hardships, the kind of empowering feminism the two friends were looking for, though their priority remains getting laid.

Childhood friends with a strong connection, the dynamic duo shares the details of their relationship, from their completely opposite behaviors to their mutual difficulties with flirting and trying not to be weird. Bottoms understands how to explore the complexities of love and celebrates its diverse forms, and as the story progresses, the characters go through changes, discover new emotions, encounter awkward and uncomfortable situations, meet new people, and explore new aspects of themselves during their adventures. The movie eloquently pays homage to the multifaceted nature of love, highlighting its diverse expressions.

When I compare it to her past work, I think Emma Seligman is more skilled at creating stressful scenes that leave us uncomfortable in Shiva Baby, rather than putting characters in embarrassing situations and making us laugh, like she did in Bottoms. Nonetheless, the story's narration and style have advantages. Comedy is an extremely subjective issue, and the movie delivers the type of humor that I enjoy. My main issue is that the movie's third act becomes too predictable, especially considering that it went against all the usual clichés and conventions of the genre before that.

Regardless, Bottoms is a refreshing film for the teenage scenarios that efficiently displays the beauty of romance's diversity and the need to understand one another, all mixed into the seriousness and awkwardness that was the teenage years.