Groupers

The third chapter, Hank And Frank is the section that follows that lackluster segment. While a slight improvement, because the audience gets a reprieve from Orin before they wind up wanting to murder him, this section is not all that interesting. It’s about three bumbling wannabe punk gangsters who don’t do much. They stumble up the activity and interfere. The problem is that they are not particularly compelling characters, despite the energetic performances from all involved. All they do is cuss a lot for no reason and make fun of others.

“…first 45-minutes, give or take, of Groupers are superb…”

Happily, the final chapter titled Durant, named for the gay gang leader, perfectly played by Terrence Wentz, is when Groupers begins its upswing. Wentz’s rational way of thinking, and his grand plan- to own the lands and houses before gentrification sets in- makes a lot of sense. His posse proves hilarious, and the character’s love of knowledge makes him a fantastic foil to the useless, imminently hateable Orin. Sadly, the two don’t share enough screentime for these differences to be adequately explored.

Groupers starts well ahead of the pack. But it stumbles, hard, a bit before the halfway mark. It takes a good 30-minutes or so for the film it right itself. Even then, it never reaches its full potential again. The cast is uniformly excellent, the editing is kinetic, but the script loses focus and diminishes its purpose. That is nigh unforgivable.