[Film Review] Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) and Bottoms (2023)

Two sophomore feature films from two woman directors which put Gen Z queer girls in the epicenter, incidentally, both starring Rachel Sennott, whose star is rising as a consummate comedienne in Hollywood. Dutch actress-turned-director Halina Reijn's BODIES BODIES BODIES is a single-location slasher with a twist in the "who" of whodunit whereas Canadian filmmaker Emma Seligman's BOTTOMS is a high-school sex romp, only fully plunging with its lethal talons in the climatic "girls vs. boys" brawl on a gridiron.

The whole story of BODIES BODIES BODIES takes place inside a stone manor house, seven people (five twenty-some longtime friends, two plus-ones) are gathered together for a hurricane party, among which Sophie (Stenberg) arrives sort of unbidden with her new girlfriend Bee (Oscar nominee Bakalova, a compelling red herring). The mansion belongs to David (Davidson, playing a slack trustafarian is right up in his alley), Sophie's best friend, who is constantly at loggerheads with Greg (Pace, a square peg in a round hole here, he is way too charismatic to play dumb), the much older new squeeze of Alice (Sennott). Then there is also Emma (Wonders), David's girlfriend, and Jordan (Herrold), who postures in a threatening vibe towards Bee. After a titular "murder in the darkness" game goes awry, death befalls them by turns, in an "And Then There Were None" fashion, against a stormy night where all power is cut and cellphones have no reception, an ever-so convenient milieu to act on one's darkest impulse and past grievances with no outside succor to seek.

Shot mostly in the darkness with light sources exclusively from cellphones, a headlight and Alice's glow tubes, Rejin's film is credibly arresting even if the death scenarios are stock, and thanks to the low visibility, they are often executed helter-skelter (no jump scares so the film is "horror" in a minor note). Audience's usual suspect swings back and forth in the wake of a similar but conspiratorial narrative syntax: Jordan may conceive a mean streak for carrying a torch for Sophie; Bee's "offense is the best defense" mettle and her fabricated back story is suspicious enough when she becomes the only "unknown quantity" left; Sophie's monkey on her back, her rebab history and alleged cheating may make her look culpable; or is it the doing of an unseen eighth person? It all leads to the final reveal, a rather silly but unexpected concoction that squares with today's social media fad and technology obsession (the film literally ends with the line "I got reception!"), a point BODIES BODIES BODIES manages to underscore along with the untrustworthy nature of Gen Z's plastic friendship and situationships.

Campiness is wrought on all cylinders in BOTTOMS, Seligman's follow-up of the rip-roaring SHIVA BABY (2020), a sharp and comical read on being Jewish and bisexual top-billing Sennott in her star-making turn. Here besties PJ (Sennott, also serving as the co-scribe) and Josie (Edebiri) are two lesbian high-school incels in New Orleans. They jump on the chance to organize a "girls fight club" with a certain degree of embroidery, in order to get closer to the objects of their respective desires: two popular cheerleaders, Brittany (Gerber, a beanpole putting on a typical glacial supermodel air) and Isabel (Liu), the latter is the official girlfriend of the school's star quarterback Jeff (Galitzine, full of himbo energy). Both PJ and Josie are punching above their weights and BOTTOMS is clear-headed enough not to simply grant their wishes, every so often, one's other half is hidden in plain sight.

The club becomes an instant success, besides acquiring self-defense skills, its members also find solidarity by empathizing with each other's experiences (which is only touched on for the sake of offering an emotional outlet). It boomerangs when the club's popularity steals the limelight from the football team, whose upcoming game with a rival school lays the final battleground for the girls to showcase what they've learnt after the club's dissolution due to debunked falsehood and a falling-out between PJ and Josie. The finale is a hog-wild donnybrook, which completely shifts the film's overall bubblegum tone to something more violent, and the resultant adrenaline rush is a real treat.

BOTTOMS is a daring protestation of "girl power and queer positivity" and a celebration of genuine friendship (the obverse of BODIES BODIES BODIES). Seligman trenchantly configures a satirical comedy with both felicity and facility (some tweaks in the script is needed though, like the frivolity of bomb-planting is ill-advised). The cast has a lot of bang for the buck, even if most of them are discernibly on the wrong side of teenagers. Both Sennott and Edebiri are phenomenal, when a dynamo meets a wallflower, their crosstalk is a wellspring of mirth and affection, the dernier cri of the coolth.

Both films pander to a young generation of audience with a pop culture-savvy attitude and a killer soundtrack, if BODIES BODIES BODIES is crimped by its own genre designation, BOTTOMS, for better or worse, is an ethos-echoing banger certainly and furthermore puts Seligman's name on the map.

referential entries: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's READY OR NOT (2019, 6.9/10); Emma Seligman's SHIVA BABY (2020, 7.5/10); Olivia Wilde’s BOOKSMART (2019, 6.8/10).

Title: Bodies Bodies Bodies

Year: 2022

Genre: Horror, Comedy, Thriller

Country: USA

Language: English

Director: Halina Reijn

Screenwriter: Sarah DeLappe

based on a story by Kristen Roupenian

Music: Disasterpeace

Cinematography: Jasper Wolf

Editors: Julia Bloch, Taylor Levy

Cast:

Amandla Stenberg

Maria Bakalova

Myha'la Herrold

Rachel Sennott

Chase Sui Wonders

Peter Davidson

Lee Pace

Conner O'Malley

Rating: 6.1/10

Title: Bottoms

Year: 2023

Genre: Comedy

Country: USA

Language: English

Director: Emma Seligman

Screenwriters: Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott

Music: Leo Birenberg, Charli XCX

Cinematography: Maria Rusche

Editor: Hanna Park

Cast:

Rachel Sennott

Ayo Edebiri

Ruby Cruz

Havana Rose Liu

Kaia Gerber

Nicholas Galitzine

Miles Fowler

Marshawn Lynch

Dagmara Dominczyk

Punkie Johnson

Zamani Wilder

Summer Joy Campbell

Virginia Tucker

Wayne Pére

Rating: 7.1/10