A & E

Femmes4Films: Queer Movie Reviews

Summer Gardner and Ella Gibney • December 9, 2025

One of our favorite movies of all time, we would recommend Bottoms to anyone who enjoys satirical comedies or is just looking for a fun Friday-night watch.

Have you found yourself in constant battle with the Netflix search bar, dissatisfied with the limited queer media available? Look no further for unique queer movie reviews and recommendations from two brutally honest femmes, printed monthly in a recurring column. This month, we review a witty comedy, a 2000s drama, and even a holiday movie (no, not the Kristen Stewart one).

Bottoms

This campy and bizarrely comical satire follows the story of two outcast lesbians as they embark on a mission to date the cheerleaders of their dreams. Director of Bottoms, Emma Seligman, purposefully exaggerates the most common high school cliches as a way to poke fun at teenage social hierarchies, the over-popularity of football, and overdone media tropes. Every character fits into a typical high school caricature, such as annoying jock, dumb pretty girl, or unpopular nerd, but even so, each one of them is shockingly complex and stereotype-defying. With its absurd and perfectly delivered humor, this off-the-wall romcom is one of the funniest movies we’ve seen in a while. Though the movie received mixed reviews from critics, if you’re a fan of Do Revenge, Booksmart, or zany and offbeat films in general, this is the perfect movie for you.

Saving Face

This movie should really be called Serving Face because of all the gorgeous actors. However, the title is very apt: one of the major themes of the movie is the pressure of hiding who you are and who you love to maintain appearances. While it is a romance, the movie also focuses on the strained mother-daughter relationship between the main character and her traditional Chinese mom, made even more difficult by cultural expectations and differences between the two. The movie is an exploration of queerness in a space where non-traditional love is judged, with themes of propriety, family, and when love is more important than appearances. Saving Face is a love story in multiple senses and is sure to be a hit for fans of somewhat-cliche 2000s romances and those who love bittersweet comfort movies.

Let It Snow

Based on the novel written by authors John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle, Let it Snow is a holiday romance that follows the lives of multiple teens on a snowy Christmas Eve. Like most holiday romcoms, this movie is irritatingly corny, with a predictable plot and one-dimensional characters. However, there were some very solid actors, including Isabella Merced, Shameik Moore, and Liv Hewson, who somewhat redeemed the movie and its cheesy dialogue. One of the three romances this movie centers around follows the relationship of two girls, which, like the other two romantic plotlines, is pretty mediocre. Although Let It Snow is far from a masterpiece, it’s decently entertaining and sometimes heartwarming. I would recommend this film if you want to turn your brain off this holiday season by watching a trite romcom with a satisfying, bow-tied ending.

About the Contributors

Summer Gardner, Writer

Summer Gardner is a second-year staff writer for The Owl and a senior at Boulder High. She enjoys writing about social issues and sharing her opinions on whatever else is on her mind at the moment. When Summer is not in school, she enjoys reading, spending time outside, and pestering her sister whenever possible. Over the summer, she works as a farmer at Growing Gardens, where she mainly harvests produce and sneaks the occasional snap pea when no one is looking. One of her favorite activities is enjoying a good picnic with her friends, where she hopefully eats as many grapes as possible. These would, of course, be of the purple sort. Although purple grapes are a slightly bigger risk than green grapes (the rate of mushiness is higher), the reward is much greater, and the act of eating a solid purple grape is said to be one of the most enlightening human experiences known to man.

Ella Gibney, Editor-in-chief

Ella Gibney is entering her third year with The Owl fueled by overpriced coffee, the crystals in her pockets, and Love Island USA. Current BHS senior and co-editor-in-chief, Ella is excited to continue covering the events affecting the student body by openly writing about mental health, getting the behind-the-scenes of the school’s inner workings, and voicing her opinions on everything from pop culture to diet culture. Ella is passionate about volunteering and gives weekly presentations about depression and suicide to middle and high school classrooms. Outside of the school setting, she can usually be found thrifting jewelry, falsely believing she can read palms, or working at her part-time job to finance her full-time concert-goer identity. The only thing Ella fears more than math homework and highways is purple grapes, due to their horrifying likeness to the taste of cough syrup.