“Gay High School Fight Club” was the working title of the script that Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott sent off to a producer a few years ago, riding a surreal wave of virtual goodwill after their film Shiva Baby became a kind of cult sensation during the pandemic.
This story was about two unpopular friends, PJ and Josie, who are eager to lose their virginity (ideally to two beautiful cheerleaders). The only way they can figure out how to get close to said cheerleaders, however, is to form an all-female self-defense class that quickly devolves into a bloody fight club. They knew it had the potential to be riotously funny, slyly insightful and boundary pushing for queer teen representation. But would anyone want to make it?
Though the cinematic misadventures of horny, flawed, straight teenage boys may essentially be its own genre with dozens of films spanning decades, there has not been an equivalent for queer girls. Thankfully, though, the producer who got the script was Alison Small, the head of film at Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman’s Brownstone Productions (also behind another wild hit this year, Cocaine Bear). Instead of liabilities in untested concepts, Small thought it was the funniest thing she had ever read. It was smart, weird and original. They were in.
The film, now called Bottoms, is on its way to theaters Friday (and expanding next week), featuring The Bear breakout Ayo Edebiri as Josie, Kaia Gerber as the cheerleader Sennott’s character PJ is lusting after, Red, White & Royal Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine as a toxic quarterback, and former NFL player Marshawn Lynch as a very unconventional teacher.