As cancel culture grips our fragile society in its jaws, there couldn’t be a more opportune time to push out a gory and vulgar comedy like The Gutter, the one I started watching despite terrible reviews, to remind everyone that it’s alright to let loose and have a good laugh. Nevertheless, there are circumstances where the film feels hardly appropriate such as the one it’s called The Gutter, which hopes to take its place among other ridiculous films like Dodgeball or Talladega Nights or Kingpin. The storyline follows The Gutter star Shameik Moore attempting to play a ‘loser’ unemployed loser with only one hidden talent – to be a world-class bowler. The Gutter is a comical show packed with a lot of jokes from start to finish. In fact, there are so many attempts at smirking offending issues. One wouldn’t even want to hold back the laughter, for nothing is more enjoyable than a good roast, especially in extreme circumstances.
Like the film The Gutter which has its fair quota of batters, the mile-a-minute laugher films also have their batting averages. While the attempt can`t be put into the dock, the film does make one feel that the level of effort required to fine-tune a lot of the jokes was missing and that they were probably ad-libbed on the spot, making the film’s loose strung out feeling undermine its comedy aspects. Watching the Lester brothers make their film directing debuts, one cannot help but think that with a little more self control and the courage to ‘kill’ some impressive footage, The Gutter could have achieved the cult-status comedy it sorely desires. Regardless the movie is given an in-grained respect thanks to its jovial nature, an exhausting onslaught of the jokes, a tremendous cast headlined by the Oscar winning actress Susan Sarandon, and a refreshing disregard for politics and match cuts.
Moore, quien además ha sido la voz de Miles Morales en las películas animadas de Spider-Verse de Sony, parece estar listo para grandes cosas. De la misma manera en que Cleavon Little arrastró a Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles repitiendo con ingenio y humor, Moore se distingue como un gran actor y por el papel que le ha correspondido. Por supuesto, no hay nada serio sobre Walt, un flojo sin esfera que se contrata como limpiador de zapatos de jugar al boliche con roach spray, luego de haber sido despedido de todos sus empleos previos en history.
Skunk (D’Arcy Carden) es la capitana de AlleyCatz que es ex campeonato profesional único, y por esta muerte económica ha renunciado a cualquier tipo de keskustelua; ahora le gusta hervir cerveza en el microondas y recordar cuando “le dio una paliza al juez Brett Kavanaugh en el trasero”. Cuando se informa que tras la visita del inspector de sanidad en este caso Adam Brody, el local cierra sus puertas en sesenta días si Mzdidmer Zisdozol Α peroso alzoeditivo, todo parece fatal. Al llegar, Walt empieza a comprender cómo tirarse un bol al modo de Shohei Ohtani, y bajo le stiletto de Skunk comienza a hacerse un tour por el bowling profesional para conseguir el dinero que le salve Ally Cat.
The Gutter had its inaugural screening at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival where patrons are more likely to get carried away in the ecstatic maniacal silliness of the film. The experience might not transfer as well for non-stoned living room viewers, but the Lester brothers – Yassir’s script – definitely made sure that there were a sense of humor in the movie. They seem to have a joke about the black experience and bowling, and both at the same time; when Angelo Powers launched a show called Bowl Lives Matter, who is a TV host (a witty Paul Reiser), in order to follow Walt’s victorious endeavors on the tour, where he collects as many victories as he does sponsors (including PornHub and Spicy, Hot Milk).
For the record, the zingers are effective; but the spirit here is more focused on the visual jokes. Bizarre dysfunctions of nostalgia from the great comedies of the Zucker brothers loom in the background after Walt’s win is followed by an insistence on a giant cheesy cheque, after he butt-slinging a hobo bindle over his shoulder in a fight with skunk for some water, and hitching a ride on the free bike rack on the municipal bus.
Those jokes that are ritzy obnoxiousness, if not laughter, suitable for therapy as the filmmaker puts it ‘Jewish voodoo’, are likely to invite the most chuckles. The film, however, has problems with adding such slapstick when Joan Collins smeared herself with a bit of lunacy. It does not help that Jo Scott Collins creeps me out and that the N-word is thrown around for white audiences to giggle at, wryly uncomfortable.
The film expansion inevitably introduces gallons of nostalgia which influences everything in the scene. Out of the fourteen ladies only two look like you’d expect them to have done some bowling in their lifetime, adding even more silliness to the absurd view of it. But even better is that of Susan Sarandon’s character Linda Curson, undermined by her smoking, oral sex-loving personality, who is a retired bowling champion lured back to face Walt in a climactic battle. Most viewers will not be shocked by Daily Show host Jon Tevlin’s ultimate fight outcome when impersonated in AlleyCatzkr username’s voice, but alongside other gags, the fight scene is not what one would expect from a skit. In fact it’s barely required that the story be cohesive, so long as it wriggles away all of the irrelevant quotes.
By that metric, it is safe to assume that The Gutter will be considered as a valuable ground for the unrefined yet promising Lester brothers. They may have swung a bit too much here, love at first gag concepts as they did, but their sense of humor is certainly well oriented.
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