The Gutter

Some films are bad stupid films, and the bad stupid films in question have the audacity to give you a sense of anger that you have wasted a good two hours of your life that can never be regained — as pieces don’t come together to form a reasonably satisfying whole (cough). Other films, on the other hand, seek to capitalize on the viewer’s stupidity: by being stupid themselves. Such films include, Dumb and Dumber, Cabin Boy, The Big Lebowski, and now The Gutter – a sports comedy that is meant to be about bowling but is actually about celebrating how great it is to do ‘dumb’ things with your buddies.

Entertainment does not get wilder than this crazed low-life buddy comedy. Hilariously, two brothers came up with this film and at the SXSW premiere event, they said that they have been best friends since birth. The movie was both directed and produced by Isaiah Lester and Yassir Lester, who also happens to be the writer of the film. The film ‘The Gutter’ has a huge cast that includes the likes of ‘Shameik Moore’ from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, D’Arcy Carden from The Good Place, Adam Pally from Happy Endings, Kim Field from Living Single, Jackée Harry from 227, Paul Scheer from The League, Paul Reiser from Mad About You, and Susan Sarandon. Given such a diverse cast, they all had their own individual purpose- to make jokes, regardless of their sensibility or wit. Brothers The Lester never mislead the audience, so turns out this film is an addictive sports comedy, and an even more hilarious one.

So now what is the gutter about?

Walt is played by Moore, who is a young unemployed Black male who dispises shirts, enjoys jewelry, especially yellow gold chains, and tends to get fired from his mediocre jobs for easy-to-foresee mistakes. For instance: “Thought tasting spoons were impractical.” He ends up in AlleyCatz, a poorly managed establishment and a bowling center that is exceptionally bad even among bowling centers. He is, quite literally in fact, a 3 time loser in society seeking employment opportunities anywhere. Well who are the misfits here?

There is Mozell, the owners open hearted figure who does not really acquire a crowd of bowlers, but often entertains street preacher Brotha Candy, a dedicated drunk Skunk who is also a very average professional bowler and an anonymous creature that screams loudly and steals from her kitchen.

However, when health inspector (Adam Brody) threatens to close the joint down (with every government department including the ATF), these losers try to salvage the day, or at least the bowling alley by making some major changes to it.

Walt seems to be a natural in rolling strikes. And as his so-called coach/bff Skunk, from now on directs him in a competitive bowling tournament tour, that could potentially net big bucks to ensure that AlleyCatz stays afloat. His manner of speaking turned out to be the first of many wins including with his works but what also got attention was those outrageous costumes and ‘over-the-top stage name.’ But Walt and Skunk, every great now pin smasher seems to have won the game after retiring a legend. Enter Susan Sarandon as a stern and sexually liberated Linda “The Crusher” Curson, who shags her male assistant in between chain smoking and savagely cursing out every opponent in sight.

Shameik Moore and D’Arcy Carden form one of the best comedy combnations that these two characters bring

Both the characters, Moore and Carden need no introduction as their character traits start building once Walt and Skunk manage to locate their secret initiate an impressive handshake that seems unanimous. The sense of humbleness that he previously displayed when voicing Miles Morales is now gone and has been replaced with a raucous overacting that includes a lot of bumping and grinning that is absolutely ludicrous. Walt humiliates himself with hideous ridiculous postures when he wants to throw the ball to the other side or even walks around the surface of the ball in a very funny manner only to improve upon his balance. But Moore may well be at his comedic best when MC can be alternately switched to reproachful screaming. I scratch my head in wonder as to why this film was made, as I do not see how anyone in Moore’s immediate vicinity could ever remain serious during the filming, such is his unconstrained comedic chaos. This doesn’t break since Carden not only doesn’t break, she is his ideal complement.

There aren’t a lot of top actresses who have an improvisational background, possess such an awkward delivery and have the body of a slacker that enables them to play the mumbly skunk, which is what Carden is. She is a riot, as she always is. “I know what you’re thinking,” she shrugs, “ it’s a man’s name…Skunk.” “It was the name of the animal,” Moore adds without hesitation, as always. As Carden retorts with a confused “What animal?!” I just fell in my laughter.

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing during the first act. So much so, that I began missing lines of the dialogues in the performance itself. Similarly, the audience at the film’s World Premiere at SXSW was cracking up, which is quite impressive, as this wacky comedy was featured at 11 am on a Tuesday, and not at a latter hour of the day where audience be merry from tacos and alcohol.

As a team, Moore and Carden give life to the ‘Yes And’ spirit of the worlds of improv comedy, feeding off each other’s contributions and turning every kind of wild punchline into a roaring round belly laugh. This is similar to how Walt and Skunk operate, both being two , “big dummies with crazy dreams” who can have each others back when things do not go as planned. Their narrative arc does not change, if they fall, they have each other standup and try again. And as comical or even outlandish the whole premise of this film is, there’s no denying that The Gutter is incredibly touching underneath its madness.

The Gutterropes makes rude jokes it’s good jokes.

Though some gags were regarded as more silly than offensive, it seems that the ink took a call to divert its gaze and the Lester brothers got some good laughs with more dangerous ones throughout the film. Critically, they are not the ones to look up from the ground. A fair amount of the punchlines that dominated the film were laced with sheer stupidity many people have pitched the most ridiculous ideas one can imagine. Like any southern fried bigot calling therapy ‘Jewish magic’ or Reiser’s annoying weather sportscaster ‘saying B.L.M means Bowl Lives Matter ‘cause he ‘said it first.’

As the brothers put it, they mean things very well without the context. They wish people to laugh at such stupidity, yet there is a limit to everything, in this instance what joke should be watched by who.

For starters, take Disney’s favorite son. Walt’s stage name has the N-word in it meaning someone should not be calling him that. It is a running gag which is noted but not too much so as to make it boring in the long run.

I can barely recall the last time such a senseless comedy had me laughing out this hard simply because of the script. The Gutter is the type of comedy which kills distributors because it won’t ever play it safe. Of course, not all the jokes work and some of them even elicit a gasp rather than laughter. But the Lesters have packed so many ridiculous humor and such well-cast comic actors into the film that The Gutter is enjoyable from the first screen to the last.

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