For some, high school is an awful experience. For most, it was tolerable with some bright spots to help gloss over the bad. For that lucky, blessed few, high school is nothing but great friends, fun parties, dances with your best guy or gal and fun at Friday night football games. I was in the middle category. Being a band kid, it was always a blast to march over to the football stadium, run through the pregame show and National Anthem, then watch the game until just before halftime when we were back out on the field to perform the show we had rehearsed for weeks. We’d play the fight song whenever our team scored a touchdown and generally had fun. While I was a fat kid (and adult), I had enough friends to soften the blow of the occasional bullying I received. I was able to express myself on stage in drama productions that brought me positive attention. All in all, my high school experience was fine. For kids that fall outside the gender norms of male, female and straight, high school can be a painful, even life-threatening time. The recent crackdowns on expressing one’s preferred gender and sexual orientation in schools are making the lives of these marginalized kids that much harder. In the movie “Bottoms,” the challenges faced by two queer kids are played for laughs as they struggle with their desire to lose their virginity and raise their social standing from the lowest rung on the social ladder to something closer to the middle.

Best friends PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), a couple of out and proud lesbians, are hoping to lose their virginity this year as school starts. PJ is full of unearned confidence as she has her eyes set on cheerleader Brittany (Kaia Gerber) despite having never spoken with her. Josie is enamored with another cheerleader, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu), but feels hopeless at them ever hooking up as Isabel is the girlfriend of the star quarterback of the Rockwood Falls Vikings, Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), a full-of-himself stud with a roaming eye. At the fair preceding the start of school, Isabel catches Jeff flirting with an older woman, leading to a fight in the parking lot, just as PJ and Josie are leaving. Isabel jumps in their car, but Jeff stands in front of it, keeping them from leaving. Josie moves forward slightly, barely touching Jeff’s knees, but he acts as if his legs are broken and falls back screaming and crying where he’s cradled in the arms of Tim (Miles Fowler), a teammate. The next morning, PJ and Josie are called to the principal’s office where their time in juvenile detention is brought up. The girls were never in juvie, that was a story they made up to make them sound tougher. Josie suggests to the principal instead of suspension, the girls could set up a club to support female empowerment. Not understanding the concept, the principal asks if she means a female fight club and PJ says enthusiastically says yes. Josie is against the idea, but PJ thinks it’s a way to bring in attractive girls, including Isabel and Brittany, and perhaps have sex. Despite not knowing anything about self-defense, PJ and Josie start the club with a few girls that gradually grows to include Isabel and Brittany. Soon, the girls go around school with the bruises and cuts from the fight club like badges of honor, and the girls at the bottom of the social hierarchy are beginning to move up. After Jeff is caught cheating on Isabel with one of the mothers of a club member, Josie has a chance of hooking up with Isabel. But there are those in the school that see the club as a threat to their own social status and begin plotting to bring PJ and Josie down.

On its face, “Bottoms” doesn’t seem like everyone’s favorite movie. And it won’t be as there are no car chases, no superheroes, and no strapping leading man swooping in to save the damsel in distress. It’s a film that will find its niche in bigger cities with more open and accepting audiences as in the opening scene, our two leads announce they are lesbians hoping to lose their virginity. The language is raw and at times raunchy, the characters are not always likable and tell lies to further their goal having sex. If this was a traditional film featuring a straight male using the same tactics to attract women, we’d be shocked and offended and rightly so. In “Bottoms,” we’re more forgiving the tactics used by PJ and Josie as they are so inept and so far down the social hierarchy of their school, the chances of success are almost nil. That’s what makes this movie such an easy watch as we are rooting for these ladies to succeed despite their tactics since they are introduced and quickly proven to be such losers.

Star and co-writer Rachel Sennott is the unstoppable force that has yet to meet an immovable object in her performance as PJ. Sennott embraces PJ’s enthusiasm for her hale-baked ideas and forges ahead with every bad decision as if her life depended on it. Sennott is unafraid of being obnoxious and generally unlikable for most of the film. Her bravery in playing a conniving and duplicitous character that still retains a few redeeming qualities is to be admired. PJ is a memorable character due to Sennott showing us both her ugly and beautiful qualities.

Ayo Edebiri’s Josie is the reluctant accomplice to PJ’s plans and schemes. Josie tries to steer her out of control friend on a path that is less risky, and always fails. That the pair stumbles into the occasional success is a minor miracle. Josie is sweet and kind, a good friend to PJ that just wants someone to love and to love her. Her sights are set high on Isabel and despite success being unlikely, Josie keeps a positive attitude. That’s a difficult task as PJ’s plots and schemes appear headed for disaster, but Josie sticks with her friend. Josie isn’t above using manipulation to further her quest to bed Isabel, so she isn’t perfect. That’s what makes her an interesting character as she’s flawed like the rest of us.

The rest of the cast is terrific, with special kudos to Ruby Cruz as fight club member Hazel Callahan who has an affinity for explosives, and a surprisingly funny turn from former pro football running back Marshawn Lynch. Though it really shouldn’t be a surprise about Lynch as I’ve seen him in several other comedic roles including the Netflix improv series “Murderville.” Lynch plays a checked-out teacher named Mr. G who becomes the fight club’s faculty adviser. Lynch is naturally funny and seems at ease in front of the camera. What he says throughout the film is always something of a surprise as it’s often wildly inappropriate.

“Bottoms” is rated R for crude sexual content, pervasive language and some violence. The discussions of sex are crude but there is no on-screen sex. There is also no nudity, but women are shown with plunging necklines, in lingerie and one character is shown in her bra. We hear sex between a couple, but don’t see anything. The violence is mostly comical with one disturbing fight scene between a member of the fight club and a shirtless football player that is usually kept in a cage. One person is shown impaled on a sword with the assumption being that person dies. There are numerous bloody noses, bleeding cuts and bruises shown. A car and a tree were blown up by a student with another student threatening to blow up the school. Foul language is common throughout the film.

“Bottoms” is a little movie with not much promotion, coming from a small studio, Orion, and getting limited distribution from MGM, a subsidiary of Amazon. The fact a comedy about two queer high schoolers was made at all considering the current political environment in some states (including my own home state of Tennessee) is a small miracle. While I understand a film like “Bottoms” has a limited appeal and serves the studio best as a limited release, the film should be seen by as many people as possible. While it may be considered offensive by the pearl clutching set, “Bottoms” is a statement on the issues of teenagers, straight or queer, and how much of a struggle figuring out what you are and how to move through life can be. Parents and their teens should see the film whether their kids are queer or not. Some scenes might make both sides feel a little uncomfortable, but the conversation after would be important.

“Bottoms” gets five stars.

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