HEATHERS is just one of many reference points at work in Emma Seligman’s new BOTTOMS, but the two films taken together illustrate just how differently the “dark comedy” designation can be applied to high-school movies. So after searching for meaning in BOTTOMS, and coming to terms with the idea that meaninglessness may actually be its point, we compare how these two expressions of high-school hierarchies under attack function as dark comedy, how they put familiar tropes about cliques and clueless adults to different ends, and how one of them defuses a bomb the other is willing to set off. And in Your Next Picture Show, we add a third explosive high-school rebellion to the mix, with a recommendation for 1979’s ROCK ’N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. 

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about HEATHERS, BOTTOMS, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next Pairing (dropping 9/19/23 and 9/26/23) Pablo Larraín’s EL CONDE and NO

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