Victor (Sam Rockwell) is a sex addict who chokes himself on food in restaurants to trick wealthy patrons in to saving him so he can scam money from them. He does this to pay for his mother’s (Anjelica Huston) mental care. Victor struggles to over come his addiction along with his pal and colleague Denny (Brad William Henke) from a colonial reenactment park while trying to find out who is dad is with the help of his mum’s new doctor, Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald)
That sort of sums things up without spoiling the whole bloody thing. Its based on a Chuck Palahniuk novel, the guy who did Fight Club, but the term for the adaptation is apparently “loosely”.
I haven’t read it and I enjoyed the hell out of the movie. The easiest audience to recommend this to would be people who like the TV show Hung. Outside of the obvious sex theme similarity, the tone is similar as well. Lightly comedic and a bit offensive for the sensitive types. If you can’t handle sex don’t watch this, and don’t watch it with your granny.
Rockwell impresses again in this. I didn’t realise until right now that I’ve seen him in more than I thought I had but he’s a great actor in this kind of role. The likeable misfit fuckup. Anjelica Huston doesn’t need my praise or yours as she earned her chops long ago.
Kelly Macdonald is lovely here and puts in a good performance with a spot on accent. I didn’t really realise it was her until I saw the credits.
And I’d be happy to see anything that teams up Brad Henke and Sam Rockwell as they have great buddy chemistry together.
While fans of the book might moan about the changes in the movie, as far as I can tell they are numerous and it’s a lot lighter than the film, the author obviously approved as he makes a cameo. The job these guys did is fantastic. They churned this thing out in 3 weeks and it doesn’t show at all. The performances are all good, its funny, nasty and could have easily stood up to an extra chunk of running time (say a weeks more filming) though that might have ruined it.
If you like a bit of edgy indie action you could do much worse. Even if it does feel a bit like an HBO show.
Oh, and a confession to make. I fucked up royally in my head and confused Sam Rockwell and Sam Worthington. And made mention of it in Movie 113: Moon’s review. Deric left a comment pointing this out that I’ve only just seen. So as an apology to anyone with a brain I’ll link his site:
http://pretendcritic.com
Nice to know I have more than 2 readers!
Next up: Hamlet 2
1 comment:
I completely agree with you on Choke. I didn't know anything about it going in, so I was a bit surprised by all the sex stuff. I didn't mind that part, and thought overall it was a great film. I am even more impressed that they were able to shoot it in 3 weeks. That doesn't seem possible. Thanks for posting my link.
You should watch The Room if you haven't already seen it. I just saw it this past week. I would love to read your reaction to it.
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