A few months ago, I set about trying to define “camp” for my (straight) mother. I’d used it in conversation without really thinking much of it, but when she questioned what the word meant, I wasn’t really able to describe it. No matter how hard I tried, it always seemed to fall short. It’s not possible to describe the word “camp”, because you just have to understand. It’s one of those words whose meaning seeps into your brain through exposure, whether that be on the internet or in queer friend circles. Or maybe you watch But I’m a Cheerleader and it all suddenly makes sense.
Since it was highly unlikely that my mom paid $6 to watch a 1998 lesbian classic on Youtube, I eventually just gave up trying to explain it to her. If the conversation were to happen now, though, I would just point to Bottoms. This movie, written by friends Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott, features two gay best friends navigating high school in the best way they know how. The girls, Josie (Ayo Edebiri) and PJ (Sennott), are quintessential losers. Everyone hates them—not because they’re gay, but because they’re gay, ugly, and untalented. Everyone knows you have to pick two.
On their quest to hook up with their crushes, cheerleaders Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber), they start a Fight Club designed to “empower women”. You may be wondering why a fight club would be allowed in school and why it would empower women, but in this alternate universe the rival football team has been beating up girls in preparation for the big game, so it’s important for everyone to know how to fight back.
Other absolutely absurd details include, but are not limited to: a recreation of Michaelangelo’s The Creation of Adam painting with the quarterback’s face in the cafeteria, a teacher (played by Marshawn Lynch) who teaches a lesson on “why all women suck” after getting broken up with, and a quarterback who ends up on crushes after getting “hit” by a car which barely touches him.
It’s meant to be silly, and that sets the tone of the movie from start to finish. My entire theater was dying laughing at how dysfunctional PJ was and Josie’s calm yet simultaneously panicked lines as she tried to flirt with Isabel.
Seligman not only wrote this movie, but she also directed, and Edebiri and Sennott starred. All three of these women are close friends, with Edebiri and Sennott having roomed together at NYU and Sennott and Seligman creating Shiva Baby together before this movie. Their chemistry definitely shows through on-screen. Even though they’re not romantically involved in this film, it’s clear that they enjoy working together and they play off of one another well.
Without spoiling the movie, there is a successful sapphic relationship to come out of this film (don’t even get me started on the lesbian vs sapphic discourse, I’m using sapphic here because Isabel appears to like men as well). The relationship is worth rooting for and those characters also have chemistry, but this time it’s the hot kind.
This movie was extremely silly, featured so many incredibly hot lesbian and queer women, and was well worth watching. At the very least, you can use it to help explain “camp” to your relatives.
Note: trigger warning for eating disorders if you go to watch the movie—one character’s eating disorder is a joke that’s meant to play on high school movie stereotypes, but could be harmful to some people
