Raunchy and absurd: 'Bottoms' goes too far, but it's way too fun to look away

“Bottoms” is the fifth beer of a movie — you know it’s way too much even as you’re enjoying it, but you’re having too much fun to care.

Sloppy fun, sure, but fun all the same. And of course the great thing about a movie: no hangover the next day.

Director and co-writer Emma Seligman subverts subversion — there must be a word for that — mining audacious comedy out of high school movie tropes. If “Heathers” (an obvious inspiration) subverted the high school comedy, which it did in memorably violent ways, “Bottoms” subverts “Heathers.”

It's wildly original, even if we recognize a lot of the places it's coming from.

What a blast.

Kevin McCabe left TV: He become the 'dean' of Arizona high school sports

What is 'Bottoms' about?

Rachel Sennott, who starred in Seligman’s well-regarded “Shiva Baby,” co-wrote "Bottoms," and stars as PJ, a senior at Rock Ridge High School. Ayo Edebiri, so great in “The Bear,” plays her best friend Josie. (Yes, they’re too old to play high-school students. Yes, it works anyway.)

PJ and Josie are social outcasts. They’re also gay. And they’re on the bottom rung of the social ladder. Their sexuality is mostly accepted but they’re also steadfastly weird, not exactly blessed with social grace.

In short, they’re losers. They know it, and they’re mostly OK with it.

They’re also desperate to hook up.

PJ has a crush on Brittany (Kaia Gerber, who is a ringer for her mother, Cindy Crawford). Josie longs to be with Isabel (Havana Rose Liu). To say that Brittany and Isabel, popular cheerleaders, are out of PJ and Brittany’s league is to suggest that they’re even playing the same sport. They’re not. But PJ and Josie are nothing if not persistent and desperate.

And dishonest, all of which comes into play. Isabel is dating Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), a star quarterback and all-around fool. He is the embodiment of stupid, toxic masculinity. So of course the school worships him. (There is an announcement at the beginning of the semester that once again this year, the school won’t have books.)

The football players wear their uniforms at all times, like the cheerleaders in “Glee.” It’s a nice little visual reminder of the absurdity of it all and the alternative universe we’re visiting.

Josie grazes Jeff with her car after he orders Isabel around. Soon word gets around that PJ and Josie were in juvy over the summer — they weren’t — and basically had to kill to survive, which they definitely didn’t.

Opportunistic, they lean into their new violent reputations and start a fight club for women. It’s kinda sorta billed as a means of empowerment, but it’s mostly just knocking each other down, wrestling and punching each other.

That's until it actually does become a means of empowerment. But that’s a rocky, laugh-filled road. And empowerment in this case includes straight-up murder, but hey, you take it where you can.

In need of a sponsor, they nab Mr. G., a teacher played by the great former Seattle Seahawk running back Marshawn Lynch, who is hilarious. Mr. G. is going through a divorce, so he’s equal parts distracted and disdainful. He shocks everyone by actually showing up at the meetings.

So do a lot of other people, including Brittany and Isabel.

'Tough to look my bosses in the eye': It was hard for Zach Crenshaw to leave ABC 15 Phoenix

The jokes are nonstop, but there's a message to 'Bottoms,' too

Woven into the outrageous jokes and the surprising violence is some real pain — the mistreatment and downright abuse the girls put up with at the hands of a society that sees them merely as objects in service to, in this case, the almighty football team. A sharing session during the fight club yields surprisingly serious results.

Of course that’s followed by a million more jokes. But the powerful points are made.

One of the all-time great comedic bits occurs in “Hooves of Fire,” a 1999 stop-motion animated Christmas special. Blitzen, the reindeer, has it out for Rudolph.

“Let’s trample him into dust, then throw the remains of the dust to the wolves," said Blitzen, voiced by Steve Coogan. "Then blow up the wolves.”

The spirit of that joke — that if something is funny, maybe it’ll be funny if you just keep pushing it farther — is alive and well in “Bottoms.”

Sometimes going too far doesn’t work. It falls flat or it’s just sort of, you know, ugh. But when it works, it works, and it works often in “Bottoms.”

'Bottoms' 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Emma Seligman.

Cast: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Havana Rose Liu.

Rating: R for crude sexual content, pervasive language and some violence.

How to watch: In theaters Friday, Sept. 1.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Bottoms' review: A high school comedy with absurdity that works