52 Films by Women Vol 8. 12. Bottoms (Director: Emma Seligman)
Still courtesy of Orion Pictures (US) / Warner Bros (UK) There is a school of thought that a film writer-director follows a critical and modest box office hit with a literary adaptation. It worked for Greta Gerwig with Little Women . There is a further school of thought that you follow it up with a tale of two childhood lesbian best friends who start a high school fight club to get laid. Wait, what? No one really had Bottoms , co-writer-director Emma Seligman’s follow up to Shiva Baby , on their bingo card, because who plays bingo anyway since the pandemic? At any rate, Seligman’s reunion with co-writer-star Rachel Sennott, puts one in mind of Gerwig’s reteaming with Saoirse Ronan – except that Ronan didn’t get punched in the face as one of the March sisters, which would have made for a very radical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel, and not, in my humble opinion, a successful one. The title, Bottoms , isn’t explained – it actually doesn’t appear until the end of ...