Release Date:
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Skinny: Sam Rockwell stars as Victor Mancini, a loser who works in a 19th colonial village by day and attends AA-style sex addict meetings by night, while fraudulently choking on food in public restaurants for supplemental income. Is it a comedy? A drama? A dramedy? In typical Chuck Palahniuk fashion, one is never quite sure.
The Good: Palahniuk's seemingly unfilmmable novel Fight Club actually made a great film. So how does the seemingly unfilmmable Choke manage? Surprise! Despite our doubts, it turned out OK, too. But beneath the movie's we-will-shock-you veneer—lost anal beads, pre-arranged rapes, old ladies who accuse Mancini of touching their "hoo-hoos"—there are some genuinely funny, touching moments here. Plus the movie, like the book, takes an unexpected but welcome left turn into the bizarre thatwithout spoiling itinvolves, well, Jesus.
The Bad: Brad Henke plays Mancini's rotund, hirsute, self-pleasuring buddy. In other words, he's a poor man's Seth Rogen for the duration of the movie. Thanks, Brad, but we've already got a Seth Rogen, and we like him just fine.
We've Noticed An Eight-Percent Uptick In Airplane Sex Since This Movie Debuted: If you find people pretending to leave the door unlocked to public restrooms in the future, you can thank (or blame) this movie.
See it, Rent it, TNT it? It's decent, but probably a rental.
The Good: Palahniuk's seemingly unfilmmable novel Fight Club actually made a great film. So how does the seemingly unfilmmable Choke manage? Surprise! Despite our doubts, it turned out OK, too. But beneath the movie's we-will-shock-you veneer—lost anal beads, pre-arranged rapes, old ladies who accuse Mancini of touching their "hoo-hoos"—there are some genuinely funny, touching moments here. Plus the movie, like the book, takes an unexpected but welcome left turn into the bizarre thatwithout spoiling itinvolves, well, Jesus.
The Bad: Brad Henke plays Mancini's rotund, hirsute, self-pleasuring buddy. In other words, he's a poor man's Seth Rogen for the duration of the movie. Thanks, Brad, but we've already got a Seth Rogen, and we like him just fine.
We've Noticed An Eight-Percent Uptick In Airplane Sex Since This Movie Debuted: If you find people pretending to leave the door unlocked to public restrooms in the future, you can thank (or blame) this movie.
See it, Rent it, TNT it? It's decent, but probably a rental.