Do you watch the show Family Guy (1999 – ?)? Do you enjoy it? And do you like gay people? If you answered ‘yes’ to all of these questions, you should be the perfect target audience for Bottoms. It’s hard for me to imagine an elevator pitch for this movie not being: “What if feature-length Family Guy, but gay and not animated?” What I mean by that is that although we do not follow a family that goes through a variety of adventures, this comedy has the same style of humour, punchlines and even the consequences our main characters face for their actions as any Family Guy episode – zero. And you will either love that or get annoyed by it. I almost loved it, and I can see this becoming a cult classic of this generation, in the same vein as The Breakfast Club (1985) became for the 80s and Clueless (1995) for the 90s.
I will address my only issue with Bottoms straightaway, as it will be mostly praise after. It took me a while to get into it, as you need to get used to everything being over the top. From some performances to action scenes and the finale (where some kids get literally killed, only for our protagonists to shake it off, almost as if they know nothing will happen to them because they are in a movie), everything is tonally sky-high. Where most comedies start at five or six, Bottoms starts at nine and only climbs higher with each scene. When you think they can’t get more ridiculous, the movie does it. When you think they can’t get more unhinged, you guessed wrong. And if you are like me and get into it, you will have a blast, and this one issue will dissolve on your next watch, as you will precisely know what you are in for. It’s almost like this movie begs you to rewatch it instantly, knowing what you are in for.
I believe we will look at Bottoms 10/15 years from now as the movie where these two megastars came together just before (or just as) they hit it big. I am, of course, talking about our leads, Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri. Rachel has been in many great films and seems to be building herself more and more; I have definitely noticed her more often, and I can’t wait for her to be in more projects. Ayo had a wild and successful 2023 with this movie; her success with the show The Bear (2022 – ?), and she is seemingly everywhere with her fame only rising higher and higher. From the little I have seen of her, I am happy and can’t wait to see more of her. But it seems like both will be forces to be reckoned with soon and should be part of this upcoming Hollywood generational shift. Only time will tell how right or wrong I am with them, but I feel pretty safe writing this.
Anyway, in Bottoms, they complement each other so well. I liked how they each had moments when they were “the straight man” and let their co-star shine, and then, they would take over. Many comedies fail because everyone wants to be “the funny one” because nobody wants to blend in. But everyone in this movie plays it straight at some point, and except for our titular duo, nobody stands out. That might sound like a negative, but it’s the opposite, as the ensemble worked together so well they all have at least one great scene, line delivery or moment they sell. Nobody seemed to try to overshadow their scene partner; they all worked and felt like one comedic unit, and that is what made this movie so special.
As far as the style of humour goes, I will repeat myself using different words. If you told me Seth MacFarlane wrote the screenplay, I would 100% believe you no IMDb necessary. Bottoms has many scenes and jokes that feel Family Guy inspired. The only thing they missed was having a cut-away gag. That again sounds like a negative, but it isn’t because this style of humour allows the movie to be wild, without any care for details like consequences to any characters’ actions. That will be a fascinating thing to look out for on my next rewatch because there are moments when this movie wanted me to feel something. But if you have a straight-up murder of several dudes at the end, and the characters just shrug it off, are there truly any stakes to be had/felt? Bottoms will be a fascinating rewatch because when this movie finished, I felt like I witnessed something unhinged, funny, crazy and yet somehow of the moment and potentially generation-defining.
I also loved how almost everyone is gay in this movie. I am talking unapologetically, super-duper gay. I like the representation and the fact how it almost never mattered to the main story, besides one tiny subplot. I wish this is the direction more movies and shows will take, where we have gay characters, but the plot isn’t about dealing with that but they try to live their best life but things just keep getting in the way.
And when I add everything I mentioned above, from the potential star power of the titular duo, to this quirky humour that allows this movie just exist and not be too grounded in reality to it having mostly gay characters struggling with semi-regular stuff, I can see Bottoms becoming a cult classic of the 20s. Well, I guess we should mentioned 2020s, as technically, 20s would 1920s…? Anyway, as a movie fan, I see many movies, often great ones I think they will be become classics of certain genre or “important” movie of that time. But I don’t remember seeing many recent movies that gave me that special feeling, like “this is the movie an entire generation will be referencing 20 years from now.” For some reason, I got that from this movie. As I have written above, only the time will tell how right or wrong I am.
Overall, Bottoms is funny, unhinged comedy that doesn’t concern itself too much with things like “reality”. Instead, it wants you to get to know their characters and have the best time with them and in that department, the movie succeeds. Once I understood the frequency this movie operates on, I had a blast and that makes me think it will only get better and better each time I rewatch it. I will do that at some point, but in the meantime, I need to watch more movies and shows starring Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri.
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke