A love letter to 'Bottoms' for Valentine's Day (2024)

"Bottoms" is perfect. It is also officially streaming on Prime Video. These two things, in concert, should absolutely have an impact on your Valentine’s Day plans.

We've explored nearly every facet of February's love-themed holiday over here at Reviewed, from anti-love parties to last-minute gifts to spicy games to celebrate with. If you've been pondering how to spend this Wednesday evening, might I recommend "Bottoms," the gay high school fight club comedy of your dreams.

Why you should be watching 'Bottoms' for Valentine's Day

"Bottoms" is a perfect film, full stop. It's about a high school fight club run by two lesbians, played by Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott. Their goal? Use the club to get closer to the cheerleaders they're obsessed with. The film is directed by Emma Seligman and written by Seligman and Sennott, who also paired up for 2020's "Shiva Baby."

I first saw "Bottoms" with my girlfriend and we spent the entire film giggling, so naturally the association with love starts there for me. But the film itself celebrates love—what we do to attain love, how we act when we're in love, how we love our friends. It also celebrates the indefatigable willpower of a feral group of high schoolers and the havoc they unleash on a rival football team in response to an attempted murder by way of pineapple, but we'll discuss that more later.

'Bottoms' is hilarious

"Bottoms" is a comedy at its core (a gory, deeply horny one). PJ's (Sennott) dry delivery and Josie's (Edebiri) particular brand of gay panic drive the film, but the supporting cast have some incredible moments, too, including a scene-stealingly funny Marshawn Lynch as Mr. G and a gleefully awkward performance from Ruby Cruz as Hazel, PJ and Josie's fight club accomplice. It's funny from start to finish, from PJ's first disastrous attempt to flirt with a crush to the film's final brawl.

All this to say: You'll have fun at date night.

'Bottoms' is about desire

The film is about the selfishness of new love and the agonies of unrequited feelings. It's about being a teen in love and the various inanities and terrors of that. Josie grapples with her long-unexpressed love for Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), as PJ lusts shamelessly after Brittany (Kaia Gerber).

The fight club PJ and Josie establish is a mechanism for growing closer to the objects of their desire, and as the film progresses new relationships (and new heartbreaks) are formed.

'Bottoms' is about heartbreak

If you're on an anti-Valentine's wave, "Bottoms" is a perfect film for that. Cheating exes have their cars literally blown up (with a glorious backing track of Bonnie Tyler's "A Total Eclipse of the Heart")—and that's the least of the film's romantic betrayals. The film is about the lies we tell others and ourselves in the pursuit of love, and how we hurt people we love.

'Bottoms' has a happy ending (mostly)

In "Bottoms," love triumphs. The girls kiss the girls! Unlikely romances take flight as established couples reconcile. What's more, one of the film's central loving relationships, the friendship between PJ and Josie, is repaired.

And then, our lesbians and their merry band of combat-ready teens set off to the beat of a dreamy Charlie XCX tune to save the day in slow motion—by kicking the literal living sh*t out of a rival football team. It's glorious, gay, and unequivocally great.

As Mr. G says at the end of the film: "Man, I knew women were good. I've been saying that sh*t the whole time."

Watch "Bottoms." Celebrate love. Don't use your self-defense skills to take out an entire football team.

Stream 'Bottoms' on Prime Video

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