One of the comedy film subgenres that Hollywood doesn’t really make anymore is really gleefully, gloriously stupid comedies like “Dodgeball.” That’s why “The Gutter” is so special. If you watch this new trailer for Magnolia’s deranged bowling comedy, you’ll feel like you got hit in the head with a bowling bowl and woke up back in 2004.
“The Gutter” stars Shameik Moore (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”) as Walt, a horny slacker who gets a job at a bowling alley and discovers he has a preternatural skill for bowling. With the help of barfly Skunk (Emmy nominee D’Arcy Carden, “The Good Place”), Walt takes the SLOB (Super League of Bowlers) by storm in order to raise funds to save the bowling alley from foreclosure. But he’ll have to defeat legendary bowler Linda “The Crusher” Curson (Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon), who doesn’t take kindly to his upstart ways. It’s a supremely goofy movie, with gags like making Sarandon say, “Walter could be something someday, like a janitor or a garbageman in Wakanda.”
The film is written and directed by brothers Isaiah and Yassir Lester (“Black Sunday”). The stacked cast also includes Jay Ellis, Jackée Harry, Adam Brody, Adam Pally, Paul Scheer, Kim Fields, Earthquake, and Paul Reiser, among others.
“The Gutter” premiered at South by Southwest. It got positive reviews out of the festival, with Mashable’s Kristy Puchko writing, “I can’t remember the last time a comedy this stupid was so smart in its jokes.”
“The Gutter” opens simultaneously in theaters and on-demand on Friday, Nov. 1.
