Youth and growing up are classic themes for art. It's why some of the all-time great films, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club, take place in high school, with nostalgic Hughesian timelessness communicating essential truths of personhood. 

It's also where more recent films featuring high schoolers have faltered, becoming too subsumed by "of-the-moment" pop references, TikTok-influenced trends, and language and jokes that become dated before the movie leaves the theaters. Examples like last year's Bodies Bodies Bodies have tried to push the buttons of Gen-Z culture and style but have, as a result, broadly fallen flat and felt stale. 

Bottoms turns this recent trend on its head, delivering an undeniably modern but somehow fundamentally essential story of maturing, female friendship, and the victories and mistakes of young adulthood. It doesn't hurt that's side-splittingly funny, too. 

In an opening scene that introduces the audience to the wink-and-nod meanness and whipcrack-fast dialogue that's characteristic of the movie's brisk 88-minute runtime, we meet PJ and Josie, two queer girls in high school who, as is so common in these films, are brainstorming plans to get laid before they graduate, a challenge because they're at the bottom of the school's food chain. (It's 2023, so that's not because they're gay, it's because they're "gay, ugly, and untalented" — in a cutaway gag hammering the point home, we see the flamboyantly gay star of the school play receive adulation from jocks and the popular kids alike). Despite, and in fact probably because of, their social status, PJ and Josie have developed crushes on two beautiful, unattainable, and unfortunately straight cheerleaders, Isabel and Brittany. 

After a violent hazing incident endangers a classmate, our heroes hatch a plan to start a women's self-defense group and use the sweaty, adrenaline-filled sparring matches to get physically close to the cheerleaders. With the help of hard-shelled friend Hazel, gullible weirdo Sylvie, and a cast of other misfits, they start the public-safety-group-cum-fight-club and the plot starts ramping up. And ramp up it does; Bottoms starts with an unlikely yet believable premise but only get crazier, as lies spin out of control, villains get more absurdly villainous, revenge plans take explosive turns, and extreme, gratuitous violence escalates within the high school community. 

The film is the sophomore directorial effort from Emma Seligman (whose debut, Shiva Baby, was already indicative of considerable skill and clear potential). Seligman met and befriended Bottoms' stars, Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, at NYU, where all three were students in the 2010s. The trio's clear friendship and chemistry on and off screen are no doubt central to the film's success, with organic scriptwriting, considerable comedic improv (reflected in a welcome return of credits bloopers), and three sets of fingers on the pulse of pop Millennial/Gen Z cusp culture. 

Beyond Sennott and Edebiri's terrific work (which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's seen Sennott's Twitter or watched Edebiri in two of this website's other favorite summer movies, Theater Camp and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), there's a great cast who all bring to life the strong script. Supporting actors include the equally pretty and talented Havana Rose Liu as the boyfriend-entrapped Isabel and Kaia Gerber as the airhead-with-a-heart-of-gold Brittany; Ruby Cruz as the child-of-a-broken-home Hazel; Summer Joy Campbell as the disturbed Sylvie; Marshawn Lynch in a star turn as the divorcee club sponsor (whose famous appearance on Conan hinted at comedic talent); and SNL's Punkie Johnson as a sage older queer woman. 

The antagonistic football team is perfectly cast too, spearheaded by pretty boys Nicholas Galitzine and Miles Fowler. With their whiny yet malicious characters at the helm, the gender politics in Bottoms is more interesting, clever, and brutally honest than the Kens in this summer's Barbie, which was ultimately more watered-down than what Seligman accomplishes. Young women characters discuss "gray area" personal traumas that all actually reflect female resilience; young men characters are nudged by a car and wear crutches for the whole school year. When the final climax hits, it's no surprise who emerges stronger. 

The film has deep strengths outside of the acting and script, too, thanks to a female-dominated crew. A hilariously self-aware soundtrack spearheaded by glitchpop great Charli XCX also features impeccably-timed needledrops including one for Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" with which my theater had no choice but to sing along. Energetic cinematography by Maria Rusche matches the chaos on-screen, with such tricks as a repeated face-zoom gimmick. Costume design by Eunice Jera Lee evokes Heathers and Grease, updated for the 21st century.

Bottoms is riotous fun (I laughed so hard I almost cried in the first half hour alone), and its talented female cast and crew commit to the bit of generational cusp comedy that make the film timeless and well worth a watch, now or far into the future alike.