Bottoms

With perfectly timed punches at tired tropes of raunchy teen comedies, Emma Seligman's Bottoms delivers a delightfully unhinged and deliriously entertaining satire engineered to push every possible boundary. Co-written with Rachel Sennott, the black comedy feels deliciously offensive yet surprisingly charming instead of simply crude and inflammatory, where the vulgar humor and violence actually work in its favor. The story follows two unpopular high school best friends who start a fight club under the flimsy pretense of female empowerment. But really, they just want to hook up with cheerleaders before graduation. In less capable hands, the cringe-worthy premise could easily crash and burn, but Seligman overcomes the potentially problematic terrain with a deft touch, skillfully walking the tightrope between outrageous humor and genuine heart. 

Seligman borrows liberally from the playbook of cult classics, channeling the anarchic, energetic mayhem of Fight Club and the hormone-driven desperation of The Last American Virgin and Superbad. Adding a dash of the sharp, dark satirical edge of Heathers with a liter of the gloriously stupid absurd vibe of Wet Hot American Summer, we have a heightened reality where high schoolers casually discuss murder and violence, which escalates to cartoonish proportions. Granted, this makes things predictable, where most of the plot beats can be seen coming from a mile away. But Seligman never loses sight of the empowering message buried beneath all the chaos and bloodshed, even as she's busy hilariously deconstructing teen movie tropes. What could have been a messy hodgepodge instead becomes a cohesive vision that's both familiar and refreshingly subversive, one grounded in the very real anxieties of contemporary teens.

While simultaneously celebrating and skewering the conventions it's working within, the humor is intentionally designed to offend, packed with the kind of crude jokes and outrageous situations that would make the American Pie guys blush. Yet it comes across as surprisingly sweet and genuine. Many teen comedies of the past often relegated female characters to objects of desire or sources of moral guidance. But the brilliance of this lewd, surreal sidesplitter is how it flips the script entirely, giving its protagonists agency even when their motivations are cruelly selfish. There's a sweet tenderness beneath the mayhem and preposterous logic (a high school fight club somehow becomes the key to defeating a rival school's football team), a sincere celebration of female friendship and agency that gives weight to even the most outrageous moments. Seligman clearly understands that the best satire comes from a place of love, not cynicism.

Keeping the whole premise feeling endearingly sweet rather than mean-spirited, ultimately, is the fantastic chemistry of Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri as the mismatched BFFs. Sennott brings a charmingly manic spirit to PJ's overly confident schemes, surprisingly making her both insufferable and endearing as she bulldozes through every situation with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Meanwhile, Edebiri wonderfully captures Josie's social awkwardness and desperate desire to fit in, finding genuine vulnerability in her desperate attempts to navigate high school politics. Their friendship feels authentic even amid all the demented mischief. These two unpopular virgin outcasts aren't simply the butt of jokes. They're fully realized underdogs whose bond gives the plot a beating heart and for whom we actually want to root for.

In the end, Bottoms succeeds as both comedy and commentary, a sharp-witted deconstruction of the genre that doesn't mistake cruelty for amusement. This results in a movie that knows exactly how ridiculous it is and revels in every blood-splattered, profanity-laden moment.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Kino Lorber brings Bottoms to Blu-ray, housed inside the standard blue keepcase. The Region  A locked, BD50 disc goes straight to a static main menu with a poster-like photo and music playing in the background.

The black comedy makes its way to Blu-ray with a gorgeous, often-stunning 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode. Coming from a 4K digital intermediate, the presentation showcases spot-on and highly-dynamic contrast, outfitting the absurd silliness with a lustrous, upbeat brilliance and intensely radiant whites. At the same time, black levels are true and inky throughout, and deep, silky shadows penetrate maintain excellent visibility in the darkest corners, providing the 2.39:1 image with some appreciable depth and a beautiful cinematic quality. Better still, the freshly-minted transfer is awash in lush, sumptuous colors, lavishing nearly every scene with a lively, upbeat energy. Shot on the Arri Alexa camera, the video also boasts striking, razor-sharp clarity and details, exposing the individual discrete hairs and textures of the fabric in the clothes. Facial complexions are highly revealing as well, showing every wrinkle, pore and negligible blemish in the faces of the entire cast. (Video Rating: 96/100)

Violence and mayhem erupt in home theaters with a highly-enjoyable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, delivering distinct clarity and clean definition in the mid-range to generate a surprisingly broad and spacious soundstage. The design is layered with continuous background activity that convincingly moves between the three front channels and into the off-screen space. The real winner of the track is easily the music and song selections, reaching the upper frequencies with outstanding crispness and appreciable warmth. The low-end is robust and accurately responsive, providing certain scenes with a great sense of weight and presence. The lossless mix also employs the surrounds effectively with strong directionality and placement although their use is not always consistent, but when they are used and the action breaks loose, it is loads of fun. All the while, the dialogue is always precise and well-prioritized throughout. (Audio Rating: 88/100)

Kino offers a decent selection of bonuses that fans will enjoy.

• Audio Commentaries: The pair of commentaries begins with director Emma Seligman talking about the production, story and performance, and the second is a lively conversation between Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu and Kaia Gerber, which is moderated by filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat.
• Ride Along (HD, 28 min) is the typical short making-of doc featuring various cast and crew interviews mixed with plenty of BTS footage. 
• Deleted Scenes (HD, 13 min) 
• Outtakes (HD, 9 min)
• Trailer (HD, 2 min)

A hysterically relatable and refreshingly queer romp through the minefield of teenage angst, sexuality and the quest for belonging, Emma Seligman's Bottoms delivers a delightfully unhinged and deliriously witty satire of raunchy teen comedies. Starring Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, the mismatched underdogs headline a refreshing twist on the genre with a cast of lovable misfits who charm their way through the messiness of adolescent self-discovery. Kino Lorber finally brings Seligman's sophomore feature to Blu-ray with a gorgeous, demo-quality video and an excellent DTS-HD MA audio track that will energize home theaters. With a decent selection of supplements, the overall HD package is Recommended. 

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