Its not a stretch to say that 2023 was a pretty great year for movies. Between successes like OppenheimerandBarbie, acclaimed darlings like Poor ThingsandAnatomy of a Fall, and unexpected hits like Godzilla Minus OneandAnyone but You, the film industry thrived last year. However, as usually happens, more than a few films earned far more acclaim than they should have, at least in this writers opinion. Ive written already about my dislike for Emerald Fennells Saltburn, but that was a divisive film that had far more detractors than just me. On the contrary, Emma Seligmans teen comedy Bottomsreceived near-universal acclaim, and I cant, for the life of me, understand why.

Contents What is it exactly that were looking at here?Is this supposed to be funny?Bottoms, indeed Bottomsisnt necessarily bad, strictly speaking; its not a true abomination like, say, Ghosted orThe Flash. However, its also not the teen triumph it was anointed to be by most critics and the internet. Instead, its a rather average movie that is not nearly as subversive or clever as it pretends to be. In fact, compared to other entries in the raunchy teen genre, its painfully mediocre, and the more praise it got, the more I disliked it. And while hate might be a strong word, especially when talking about a movie, its a pretty succinct, if slightly exaggerated, way to describe my feelings towards Bottoms.

　　What is it exactly that were looking at here?

Bottomsfollows two high school seniors, PJ (Rachel Senott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri). Theyre unpopular, lesbians, virgins, and desperate not to be. They have crushes on two popular cheerleaders, Brittany (Kaia Gerber) and Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), but their existence goes unnoticed by the beautiful girls. While attending a local fair, Isabel seeks refuge in Josies car while in a fight with her dim-witted quarterback boyfriend Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine). When Josie attempts to drive away, she softly bumps Jeffs knees with the car, sending him into an exaggerated tirade where he fakes a more severe injury that leads to him using crutches. Threatened to be expelled, Josie and PJ pretend Jeffs injury was caused during practice for a female fight club, which they begin to both save themselves and attempt to hook up with the popular girls who join.

Related The premise itself is nothing out of the ordinary; if anything, it has a few things going for it. Like most other mediocre movies, its the execution whereBottoms fails. For starters, no one in this movie looks like an actual high schooler. True, this is a symptom of Hollywood itself, but its especially distracting inBottoms, a movie whose entire premise revolves around horny teenage girls doing their utmost to control their out-of-control hormones. But when the two protagonists look like Gender Studies majors straight out of NYU rather than fresh-faced teens who can barely contain their horniness, how can we possibly buy it? The same issue applies to every other teen in the cast, especially Galitzine, who, weeks before Bottoms premiered, was playing a British prince in his mid-20s far more convincingly.

My one major issue withBottoms is how subversive it tries to be while sticking to the same formulaic approach of your average teen movie. Dont get me wrong,Bottoms is quite violent, but even its gore is uninspired, bloody in a way weve seen countless times before, fromKick-Ass to the constant slasher movies that come out every year. Its depiction of queerness is also remarkably lazy; its fun to show teen girls being horny, especially since its so rare for movies to actually go there. However, the film tries very hard to avoid any gray areas with its two protagonists, to the point where they come across as stereotypes rather than fully fleshed-out characters.

And what a shame because Sennott and Edebiri are game in this movie, and Im sure they wouldve loved to have explored PJ and Josies darker sides. But Bottoms isnt concerned with that; it wants to be funny and daring while remaining digestible enough to have mass appeal. So whats the point? If you look at the truly subversive entries in queer cinema from Pink FlamingostoBut Im a Cheerleader, a film Bottoms shamelessly tries to emulate, failing every step of the way theres actual courage behind them. They dont want to please; they want to discomfort and provoke.

Wheres that energy inBottoms? Its idea of shock is rooted in painfully 2000s notions of what the word means: blood! Teen sex with adults! Girls being overtly horny! Its all so boring; this entire movie was advertised as the antithesis of boring, and thisis the best it can do, really? Its a true we must alert the church elders moment because of how run-of-the-mill and unimaginative it all is.

　　Is this supposed to be funny?

My other major issue withBottoms is simple: its not funny. It tries to be funny, desperately so, but it fails because of its so-so screenplay. Every joke is painfully obvious, and the film announces it before the actor has even delivered it. The female fight club, seemingly the plots main gimmick, is underused, underdeveloped, and far less inventive than it should be. Its there for a few lazy sequences, many of which seem straight out of an SNL skitfrom the 2000s when they shouldve seemed straight out of a MadTV sketch from the 2000s.

The comedy inBottoms feels calculated, someones painfully literal idea of what it means to be provocative while still trying to be accessible. Its no surprise that the films funniest and most viral moment was improvised by Edebiri: her chaotic, desperate ramble feels genuine and natural, something sorely missing from the rest of the film.

Bottoms took quite a while to premiere in Mexico, where I live. For weeks, all I read on social media was how this film was raunchy, liberated, and unlike anything weve ever seen before. Imagine my surprise when I finally watched it and found an unfunny and rather safe teen rom-com whose entire shtick seemed to be Superbad, but with lesbians. Audiences overhyping a movie has been the downfall of one too many projects Ive also written about my disappointment with Raiders of the Lost Ark, a movie often treated as the second coming, but that I found boring at best and exasperating at worst.

It doesnt help that every review nowadays seems reactionary and excruciatingly extremist the words masterpiece, classic, and triumph are overused, especially on social media. Im certain Im not the only person to read about how a movie is the best entry into whatever genre it happens to belong to, only to discover its a solid ,yet hardly groundbreaking cinematic effort.

Bottoms suffered from this fate; reviews out of South by Southwest paid it every compliment in the book and anointed it as a modern classic before it even had a release date- Yet, these frankly overblown reviews hardly do a movie any good if anything, its the opposite. We should learn to appreciate movies for what they are rather than trying to make them what we want them to be.

　　Bottoms, indeed

In my article aboutSaltburn, I wrote about how I found it ridiculously desperate, and thats exactly what I think of Bottoms. Much like its protagonists,Bottoms is desperate to be popular, to sit with the cool kids of the teen genre and boldly announce that queer comedies now have a seat on the table. But its queerness is conventional and hardly interesting, more a marketing tool rather than a thematic pillar. If the movies sole claim to classic status is we need more queer movies there, then its approach has been flawed since its inception.

Ironically, Bottoms willingness to compromise makes it unlikely to grow into a true cult classic. Its placid approach seems uninteresting, especially in hindsight, and embarrassingly tame next to works like Rocky Horroror even something likeJennifers Body. At the end of the day, and unlike what has been said, Bottoms is not surprising or refreshing, and its certainly not funny. Its silly and awkward, although not half as much as Seligman and Sennotts previous collaboration, the actually interesting and clever Shiva Baby. And the sad part is it absolutely couldve been everything it believes itself to be if only it had actually tried.

Alas, much like countless other teen comedies before it,Bottoms settled for doing the bare minimum and is thus bound to suffer the same fate they have, descending into the depths of some streaming service, hoping to be seen by some unsuspecting soul trying to fill the void on a boring Friday night. Theyre better off watching Heathers or Jennifers Body again.

Bottomsis available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and MGM+.