THE GUTTER movie poster | ©2024 Magnolia Pictures
Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Shameik Moore, D’Arcy Carden, Paul Reiser, Susan Sarandon, George Basil, Rell Battle, Chelsea Devantez, Earthquake, Jay Ellis, Kim Fields, Nelson Franklin, Jackée Harry, Langston Kerman, Adam Pally, Rob Scheer
Writer: Yassir Lester
Directors: Isaiah Lester & Yassir Lester
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: November 1, 2024 (theatrical, VOD)
Directed by Isaiah Lester & Yassir Lester from Yassir Lester’s script, THE GUTTER is a very broad comedy about the meteoric rise of young bowler Walt (Shameik Moore). It also has a lot of race-based jokes.
At first, Walt knows nothing about bowling, except that there’s an open job at AlleyCatz, a rundown establishment where the balls are scuffed and owner Mozell (Jackée Harry) sprays the shoes with roach killer rather than sanitizer to save money.
Interviewing Walt, Mozell tells him he’s stupid. The audience doesn’t have grounds to disagree.
However, when Walt meets former pro bowler/current full-time alcoholic Skunk (D’Arcy Carden), they immediately become platonic soulmates. When Skunk sees Walt effortlessly bowl one strike after another, she encourages him to go pro so he can raise money to save AlleyCatz. It is threatened with closure unless Mozell brings the place up to city code within sixty days, which will cost $200,000.
Moore has fine timing and is up for everything he’s called upon to do. Carden likewise has good comedic rhythms and puts some soul and vulnerability into Skunk. Reiser gives his bowling promoter Angelo a sense of philosophical acceptance about his own sleaziness. Susan Sarandon plays her bowling champ relatively straight.
It’s hard to know exactly how to evaluate THE GUTTER. It feels like something made in the ‘70s that somehow just got uncovered now.
THE GUTTER doesn’t have actual malice, but it meanders. For example, a funeral scene may be intended as a parody of something specific, but its target is not recognizable. As a larger spoof of sports movies, it also doesn’t find anything especially funny to say about the cliches of the genre.
The main point of audience divergence, though, is likely to be THE GUTTER’s apparent endorsement Angelo’s declaration, ““Some stereotypes, no matter how offensive, are true.”
THE GUTTER is aimed at viewers who find this amusing, rather than, well, offensive.
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