THE GUTTER - Mark Reviews Movies

The Gutter, Magnolia Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 31, 2024

The Gutter is a movie of some comedic highs and a little too much repetition. When fraternal directors Yassir (who also wrote the screenplay) and Isaiah Lester's bowling comedy is funny, it's very funny, thanks to some clever jokes and a game cast. By the time the third act comes around, though, we've pretty much seen all of the humor the filmmakers have to offer, and just when all of the setups and characters should be reaching their peak, the material stagnates.

Still, there's plenty to admire about how much the Lesters do with a simple idea. It revolves around Walt (Shameik Moore), a perpetual loser who has more or less condemned himself to that status. Later in the movie, he explains that, if he doesn't succeed at something right away, he simply gives up on it. That's why he can't read, Walt explains, and that might be why his résumé is probably the worst anyone has ever seen. There's the typeface, which includes random symbols for no particular reason, but there's also the fact that Walt includes why he was fired from every job he has ever had.

Moore's performance here is one of the reasons the material can be so funny. He's playing a dumb guy, to be sure, but he's fully and charmingly aware of his limitations. He just wants a simple life but struggles even at that—mostly because of his aversion to wearing a shirt (or any clothing other than apron, apparently, while working in a restaurant kitchen) and his tendency to be too honest. At the bowling alley where he's looking for his next job from which to be fired, he openly flirts with the establishment's owner, who hires him anyway, simply because he is likeable enough.

By the way, Jackée Harry plays Mozell, the proprietor of the worst bowling alley in the country (We know this, because she proudly hangs news clippings announcing that assessment on the wall), and she finds a way to make the most of every throwaway joke she's given. Take one moment when Walt pauses before telling his boss some bad news, and Mozell points out that nothing good comes from silence. "That's why I scream my prayers," Harry says in such a deadpan way that the word probably doesn't do it justice.

The plot, of course, doesn't matter, except to give us more and more jokes, and Lester's screenplay is aware of that. The bowling alley is under threat of being closed by a local inspector, and Walt is so angry about losing the job he just miraculously got that he unleashes it in the way one would at a bowling alley: He throws a ball down the lane. By pure luck or inherent skill, he gets a strike, and then, he follows that one up with several more.

Skunk (D'Arcy Carden), a former bowling pro who now drinks herself to sleep at the alley's bar, knows this can't just be a fluke. She becomes Walt's coach and manager, getting him into tournaments across the country, where he keeps winning, the money keeps going to saving the bowling alley (Walt demands that all of his winnings are presented to him in a big novelty check), and the pair keep making enemies of their opponents and TV bowling commentator Angelo (Paul Resier), who barely hides his racism and his desperation to be liked behind that specific inflection of a sports announcer.

For a while, the story and the gags find a solid rhythm, just going from tourney to tourney (One can guess at the limited budget here by the way the same bowling alley is decorated with different façades to represent where the matches are happening), as Moore and Carden bounce jokes, one-liners, and insults off each other. Carden's quite amusing, too, as the washed-up bowler who has an obsession with Walt beating as many records held by former champ Linda Curson (Susan Sarandon) as possible. She has her reasons—well, one in particular that suggests a lot of personal issues.

There's not much more to say about the course of this stretch of the movie, except that it is consistently funny, features a couple of fun cameos (including Paul Scheer, as one opponent with an all-body sunburn, and Kim Fields as Walt's mother, who tries to make the best of not being able to pay the bills, and Jay Ellis and Langston Kerman as Walt's cousins, whose nicknames turn out to be all-too appropriate), and has a fine sense of momentum. That last part is vital, because it means the Lesters don't allow any joke to sit too long. Any lesser one or awkward dud is immediately followed by one that works.

Eventually, though, the pattern of the comedy and the formula of the plot do become transparent, especially when Sarandon's character takes over the proceedings. She's fine, of course as an egomaniac with a phonily pleasant demeanor, but Susan's entrance marks a decided shift in focus—less on being funny amidst a minimal setup and more on trying to force jokes into that conflict and a climactic showdown.

We can really feel the exertion in the final match, which goes on too long and becomes stuck in a loop of the same jokes. That's too bad, because The Gutter is so amiable, clever, and free-flowing until that point.

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