‘The world tells us whether we’re heroes or victims...’
Chuck Palahniuk is best known as the author of Fight Club. Anyone who has delved deeper into his oeuvre will be aware that his work is typically much darker than that. Choke is much more typical of Palahniuk’s twisted sensibilities – to the point where it’s astonishing that this film ever got made at all…
Victor (Sam Rockwell) is a sex addict who is torn between spending time with his ailing mother (Anjelica Huston) and trying to sleep with her nurse Paige (Kelly Macdonald). Oh, and he might also be a distant relative of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
From writer/director Clark Gregg (best known for his many comedic turns in various acclaimed films and TV shows), Choke is a startling meditation on sex, relationships and identity. I spent most of the movie utterly bewildered that a studio agreed to finance something so deliberately subversive, but Rockwell’s typically impactful performance and a masterful ending ensure that Choke goes from being a curio to something genuinely touching. Assisted by a great soundtrack and a supporting cast boasting Gillian Jacobs, Brad William Henke and Isiah Whitlock, Choke is undoubtedly an oddity, but it is also a unique meditation on humanity. A combination of comedy and drama that does manage to be both comedic and dramatic without sacrificing one for the other, Choke is a film that deserves to be remembered more than it has been, for Rockwell’s performance if nothing else.
A must see for fellow devotees of the work of Sam Rockwell then, but also for anyone who likes to see a filmmaker taking risks.