PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are high school outcasts and best friends. With fellow pupil Hazel (Ruby Cruz) and teacher Mr G (Marshawn Lynch) they start a self defence club for women in a odd attempt to lose their virginities to Brittany (Kaia Gerber) and Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), the cheerleaders they have crushes on.
This is a strange and strangely satisfying film. The main plotline is pretty routine in many ways if you change the sex of PJ and Josie, though it does turn particularly bloody towards the end. The main joy of it, however, is how writers Emma Seligman (who also directs) and Rachel Sennott take the usual high school tropes and twist or amplify them. Not only by having the female characters act violently but in the smaller touches, such as the over the top adoration of the football jocks, who wear their uniforms at all times, and having a student in a cage in the classroom, something that passes without comment.
I do not expect Bottoms to set the box office alight, but I think it will end up with a cult following.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10