I’m afraid I just didn’t “get” whatever heightened reality they were going for in this film. Something about its bonkers depiction of high school was lost on me… and while I found the movie pretty good, without being able to get a grip on its crazy, I guess I didn’t have the revelatory experience everyone is having.

Bottoms is about a couple of unpopular teen girls who decided to form a High School Fight Club (I mean a self defense class) so they can
get with some cheerleaders. Things go a little overboard. And by a little, I mean Titanic is sinking and some dude hit a propeller on the way down.

I have no idea why the similar heightened reality in Polite Society worked for me while Bottoms didn’t. The random and bonkers levels of high school violence in this flick certainly goes for broke and I can respect that… but I didn’t understand it. I was befuddled. What were they going for? What angle… if any at all?

And since I (and I alone) didn’t get it, I was merely amused by the rest of the film. I didn’t hate it at all… I chuckled now and again, the two leads are entertaining and I like the idea of a high school fight club. But without that ability to grok the gimmick, I just didn’t care about the rather pedestrian “big reveal” and their attempt to fix it (since that largely lead to me scratching my head over the football game where they really leaned into the bonkers).

I spent a distracting amount of time in this movie thinking “what?” and “why?” instead of, you know, going with it. And that’s on me. I’m disappointed (in myself). It should be the kind of crazy, nutty, go-for-broke that I enjoy… I was left with the remnants along the edges… and I did enjoy those.

Score: 78