Directed under the collaborative effort of Isaiah and Yassir Lester, “The Gutter”, in what Yassir conceived, is a creative construct. Yassir and Shameik Moore, D’Arcy Carden, Paul Reiser and Susan Sarandon are featured the film.
Synopsis:
It revolves around Wade Walt (Shameik Moore), an aimless young man who manages to get a bartending job at AlleyCatz–a worn-down bowling center owned by Mozell (Jackée Harry). There, he meets Skunk (D’Arcy Carden), a former pro bowler with a drinking problem. Skunk finds out that Walt has an amazing gift for bowling, which is almost unreal — he can strike, whichever way the ball is rolled. When in the first place, an inspector (Adam Brody) comes to Mousell and says that AlleyCatz needs $200,000 in upholding repairs and renovations so it wouldn’t have to be shut down, it is then that Walt and Skunk decide to travel through the professional bowling tournaments to earn the same amount of money. Walt puts on a ridiculous hairstyle and becomes an advertiser of bizarre products while Skunk is eager to go and deal with her major rival, Linda “The Crusher” Curson (Susan Sarandon), who comes out of retirement to take them on.
Cast & Crew:
Shameik Moore as Walt: The very first time, Evan Moir was put to the character’s shoes who is a bit slow to realize all the beauty surrounding him and dull headed but is nonetheless quite self-assured, utterly possesses and carries within himself the spark of bowling.
D’Arcy Carden in the role of Skunk: Carden, whom audiences know from “The Good Place,” plays the reeling, drunken ex-bowling child pro who becomes a nut case to Walt.
Susan Sarandon portraying Linda “The Crusher” Curson: The chain smoking, tough aggressive bowling star who comes out of retirement to face Walt is expertly portrayed by the Academy Award winning actress.
Paul Reiser in the role of Angelo: An American actor, writer and comedian (most famous for “Mad About You”) who plays a bowling show commentator with the dark sense of humor as of Walt and Skunk’s coming up in the bowling world.
Jackée Harry is Nile’s mother, Mozell: The owner of ‘AlleyCatz’ whose bar invoice provides a stimulus for the plot.
Adam Brody acting as Building Inspector: The fact about spruce of apartment-building Alleycat in a Walt and Skunk’s betting to cross in one tournament.
Apart from these, the movie contains some interesting minor roles as well, portrayed by Kim Fields as Walt’s mother, while his cousin’s part is played by Jay Ellis, who adds colour and touches of humour to the cast.
Critical Reception:
Mixed to positive reviews of The Gutter have been offered. In Rotten Tomatoes, the movie secured a 75% approval based on 24 reviews with the average rating of 7.5 out of 10. The Metacritic report is 59 out of 100; a figure which suggests ‘mixed or average reviews’ were issued.
Craig D. Lindsey of RogerEbert.com scored the flick three out of four stars with explanations indicating, “As with most comedies that throw everything (and common sense) in the air to get a laugh, some bits and pieces do not get to land. But the Lesters thankfully cram in enough ghetto fabulous gags to keep me continuously giggling.”
A different source, Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter said that, “The Gutter’s humor fails to miss most of the time. The Lester brothers deploy jokes with precision targeting every Tom, Dick and Harry.”
However, not all reviews were favorable. Such was also the sentiment of Glenn Kenny of The New York Times when he stated that, “Absurd — the sort of way the Wayans brothers played it in their parody pictures, or ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ — and just about everything else is almost uniformly broadsheet.”
Generally, The Gutter is sad to be a giddy and cheeky kind of movie, akin to the classic sports comedies Kingpin and The Big Lebowski. It is actually their often while at times even excessive fun loaded humor and the energetic performances from the actors that makes the film a success.
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