Choke IMDB entry
Choke official site: Fox Searchlight
Choke Movie Trailer: Youtube
Choke Movie Review: Rotten Tomatoes
Skip to Rate-Down* to get the skinny
Like alot of good movies, this movie is the inverse. Its sort of, let me rephrase that, it “is” a romantic comedy turned inside out. On the fringes its a movie that I couldn’t stop watching, whether from morbid curiousity or the frequently interspersed stories of the distrought past and unhappy present; that’s right it kept me watching.
Inventory:
Star power: Sam Rockwell, Angelica Houston
Female Love Interests: Gillian Jacobs, Kelly Macdonald
Themes: mental illness / sex addiction, false pasts / closure in the face of death, overcoming one’s past
Quirky bits: everyone in the movie is so matter-of-fact, no-one really stops and says “Hey what gives?”
So I will be sparing on the plot summary, because the movie has alot of it that is not worth giving away for the prestige or the final act where we tie all the lose ends together, is good. I’m saying that after 12.5 minutes of boredom and slow intro I made the decision to persevere and stick it out, worth the pay off. I almost want to say this movie’s trailer made it seem cooler that it is but that would be a cop out because that’s the job all trailers must do anyways.
If you have heard or guessed that this movie is about a sex addict, that is 100% correct. If you have any idea that there are gratitiuos sex scenes or massive amounts of nudity you are 100% wrong. The nudity, the sex scenes, and the way the movie portrays sexual activity still gets an R rating but its not glamorized or made to be “appealing” in any way, but rather given the subject matter, portrays it accurately. When sex is an addiction to the main character, I felt that I was seeing it as plainly as is possible via a movie and me not dialoging with an actual person. The filmic imagery was necessary and detracts this from a dark comedy but more of a semi-satirical or tragic imagery of a possibly existing state for some people. That last statement indicates that for all intensive purposes the movie ‘worked’ its magic and I really was transported, however unwilling, into the semi-real world that the author of the book has allowed to be translated into film i.e. “Choke” by Chuck Palahniuk ( I have a feeling the book would be better than the movie)
The character interactions don’t seem 100% spot on as the most dramatic and convincing acting I’ve ever seen, but its not over or under done, the casual tone of the dialogue fits the film and for the part works adquetely. I also kept wanting more detail more interactions, I wanted to see the characters develop, it kept me watching; sort of the vagueness or “I’m really there” type setup maintained my interest.
And the Rate-Down*:
Will you waste your time watching this movie: This is tough to answer, the ending has a pay off and the movie phrase works as a tied in element, and gives me a “oh wow I had no idea, is this really real?” sense, so I don’t think if you had the inkling that you want to peer into this little subworld you’d be disappointed. If you want comedy, its not for you. If you want to feel better about not being the movies characters, I say yes. Toss up 50/50.
A to F scale: C points for originality, but this is not Fight Club (violence makes this entertaining” and the ending is abrupt along with the subject matter interest being borderline (I’m hard on movies and I’m not sorry for that).
Would I watch this movie again: Nope. One-time around the merry-go-round for me, probably should have just played Xbox instead of this thing but oh well, what can you do.
RePlay Value: Choke vs. Fight Club = Fight Club. What the is in this genre anyway? I don’t know, but I’m sure there is something but I’m not sure it’s comparable to this. On another note Sam Rockwell was in “Moon” and that was much better despite not being in the same category and its not overly “sci-fi” more psychological drama.
Recommended format: doesn’t lend itself to a blu ray or anything, any format would do.
Would I buy it: Nope, better off streaming it or passing all together… that means… NO LINKS TO BUY IT…HA!