David Fincher's Fight Club is a film that has transcended its origins to become a symbol of a certain kind of masculinity. If you told the toxic Tyler Durden that it would one day become the basis of a scheme for teenage girls to meet potential dates he would probably have spontaneously combusted.
That's exactly the premise of Bottoms a superb 2023 comedy that has just been added to Amazon Prime Video. Starring real-life besties Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri (who you may recognise from The Bear) this is a brilliant spin on the teen high school comedy that has received near-universal praise from both critics and audiences. On reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it boasts a 90% critics score and 89% audience rating.
Even aside from its outlandish premise this is a wild film. It's silly and crude and definitely not family-friendly and that's what makes it so brilliant. So often films like these are obsessed with the male perspective and to see female actors and filmmakers given the chance to go wild is a breath of fresh air. In fact, the film's Director Emma Seligman is just 28! I can't wait to see what she goes onto next.
That's not the only surprise about this film. It co-stars former NFL player Marshawn Lynch. I'm not normally able to disconnect the athlete from the actor but more fool me, both Lynch's performance and character (a seemingly deadbeat history teacher) are subversively brilliant.
I love a good high school movie and even a bad one sometimes, but Bottoms is so much more than that. It has the potential to become a Mean Girls or Heathers-style cult classic and absolutely deserves to be.
Amazon Prime Video has been on a roll recently. The end of 2023 saw it add another of 2023's biggest films, Saltburn while it's also just about to launch what looks like a brilliant re-imagining of a classic movie. If that's not enough you've got the upcoming Fallout tv show too! It's definitely one of the best streaming services at the moment.
