Choke | |
---|---|
Directed by | Clark Gregg |
Screenplay by | Clark Gregg |
Based on | Choke by Chuck Palahniuk |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Tim Orr |
Edited by | Joe Klotz |
Music by | Nathan Larson |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 92 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3.4 million |
Box office | $4 million [2] |
Choke is a 2008 American black comedy film written and directed by Clark Gregg. The film stars Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston. Production took place in New Jersey in 2007. It premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was purchased by Fox Searchlight Pictures for distribution. The film was released on September 26, 2008 and the DVD was released on February 17, 2009.
Choke is based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. It tells the story of a man who works in a colonial theme park, attends sexual addiction recovery meetings, and intentionally chokes on food in upscale restaurants so his "rescuers" would give him money out of sympathy and thus cover his mother's Alzheimer's disease hospital bills.
Victor Mancini is a sex addict who works as a reenactor of life in Colonial America. He works with his best friend, Denny, who is also a reformed sex addict. To support his hospitalized mother, Ida, Victor cons others by intentionally choking at restaurants to get money from his rescuers.
When he visits his mother one day, he meets Dr Paige Marshall, who takes care of her. She tells Victor that his mother's condition is worsening and that they could try an experimental stem cell technique that would require harvesting cells from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby with Victor's genes. She persuades Victor to have sex with her so she can have his child and save his mother.
Victor never knew his father and is anxious to obtain the information from his mother, but she never recognizes him when he visits. He asks Denny to pose as him and ask her questions. Denny agrees and reveals that Victor's mother kept a diary. Victor finds it, but it is in Italian. Paige tells Victor she can read Italian and agrees to translate the diary.
Victor and Paige try several times to have sex, but Victor cannot maintain an erection. After discussing it with Denny, Victor realizes he loves Paige. She then reveals to him that his mother may have fled Italy because she stole Jesus' foreskin, and used its cells to conceive Victor, making him the Second Coming. He is reluctant to believe but, in the end, accepts Paige's assertion. However, his mother finally recognizes him and tells him that she stole him as a baby and she has no idea who his birth parents are. As she tells him this, he feeds her chocolate pudding and accidentally chokes her to death.
While Paige tries to resuscitate Victor's mother, a hidden band around her wrist falls into Victor's view, revealing that she is a patient in the hospital—not a doctor. Paige then reveals that she was admitted to the hospital years ago, in a catatonic state, and fell in love with Victor through the stories his mother told her about him. As she was a former medical student, the nurses allowed her to wear a white coat, as it calmed her down. Paige, a voluntary patient, checks herself out without saying goodbye to Victor.
After his mother's funeral, Victor boards a plane. He goes to the bathroom and the door opens to reveal Paige joining him.
Writer Chuck Palahniuk makes a cameo appearance. He can be seen in the same row as Sam Rockwell on the plane just before the film ends. [3]
In April 2001, following the video and DVD success of the film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's book Fight Club , the author sold feature film rights to his then-unpublished book Choke to Bandeira Entertainment under producer Beau Flynn. [5] Flynn optioned Choke on the request of actor Clark Gregg, who had received the book as a writing assignment and became fascinated with Choke's unflinching way of dealing with "the difficult topics of childhood trauma and sexual compulsion in a way that was both painful and hysterically funny". Gregg worked on the book for five years, trying to adapt it faithfully. He decided to write his personal version of the story, believing that it would be one that Chuck Palahniuk would oppose. To Gregg's surprise, the author liked and supported the departures made in Gregg's version. [6] Gregg described the difficulty of writing the script: "It's a tricky adaptation because like a lot of Chuck's work, it operates in a heightened satirical, dark world, yet this one is one of his black romantic comedies, so getting the tone right took me some time." [3]
Gregg was attached to film Choke in his directorial debut. Production was originally slated for 2006, but Gregg was temporarily occupied with a key role on the TV comedy series The New Adventures of Old Christine . By July 2007, Gregg cast actor Sam Rockwell in the lead role, as well as supporting cast members. Production began in the same month in New Jersey. [3] Filming lasted 25 days with a budget of $3.4 million. Gregg had acted with Rockwell in a play, and the director believed that Rockwell would switch effortlessly between the dramatic and comedic moments in the film. [6] A major filming location was the defunct Essex County Psychiatric Hospital in Cedar Grove. The hospital was considered a critical location by filmmakers, who believed that production would not have taken off without the discovered hospital, due to the project's minimal budget. [7]
As opposed to dark comedies that had a sustained tone, Gregg found Choke to be more tonally complex, and that it would veer between "extremely dramatic moments" and "absurdly silly ones". The director sought to find a way to combine the two elements, drawing inspiration from the Hal Ashby films Harold and Maude (1971) and Being There (1979) and contemporary films like Secretary (2002) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). In addition, the limited budget forced the director to consider economical measures throughout production. [6]
The song "Reckoner" from Radiohead's In Rainbows was used to play over the film's final credits. Palahniuk had said that the band would be writing the score for the film but a spokesman for the band later said that this was incorrect. [8]
Choke premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2008, [9] where it won a Special Jury Prize for a dramatic work by an ensemble cast. [10] Having been positively received in its screening, the film was purchased for $5 million by Fox Searchlight Pictures for distribution. [9] Choke was also the closing film for the 10th Provincetown International Film Festival in Provincetown, Massachusetts on June 22, 2008. [11]
The film was originally scheduled for a commercial release on August 1, 2008, [12] but it was postponed to September 26, 2008. [13]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2013) |
The film received mixed reviews from critics. As of December 2021 [update] , review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 56% based on 144 reviews, with an average rating 5.70/10, with the consensus that "While bolstered by strong performances from Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston, Choke struggles to capture the tone of Chuck Palahniuk's novel." [14] Metacritic gives the film an average score of 47/100, based on 27 reviews, indicating mixed or average reviews. [15]
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. Many of his films involved themes such as religion, meaning, truth, freedom, psychology, colonialism, and war. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1980.
Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk is an American novelist who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He has published 19 novels, three nonfiction books, two graphic novels, and two adult coloring books, as well as several short stories. His first published novel was Fight Club, which was adapted into a film of the same title.
Choke is a 2001 novel by American author Chuck Palahniuk. The story focuses on Victor, a sex addict and con man. He also works at a colonial reenactment museum. The novel was later adapted for film by Clark Gregg.
Anjelica Huston is an American actress and director known for often portraying eccentric and distinctive characters.
Lullaby is a horror-satire novel by American author Chuck Palahniuk, published in 2002. It won the 2003 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 2002.
The Dead is a 1987 drama film directed by John Huston, written by his son Tony Huston, and starring his daughter Anjelica Huston. It is an adaptation of the short story of the same name by James Joyce, which was first published in 1914 as the last story in Dubliners. An international co-production between the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany, the film was Huston's last as director, and it was released several months after his death.
The Grifters is a 1990 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Stephen Frears, produced by Martin Scorsese, and starring John Cusack, Anjelica Huston, and Annette Bening. The screenplay was written by Donald E. Westlake, based on Jim Thompson's 1963 novel of the same name. The film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film and was declared one of the Top 10 films of 1990 by The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.
Bijou Lilly Phillips Masterson is an American actress, model, and singer. The daughter of musicians John Phillips and Geneviève Waïte, she began her career as a model. Phillips made her singing debut with I'd Rather Eat Glass (1999), and since her first major film appearance in Black and White (1999), she has acted in Almost Famous (2000), Bully (2001), The Door in the Floor (2004), Hostel: Part II (2007), and Choke (2008). From 2010 to 2013, she played the recurring role of Lucy Carlyle on the television series Raising Hope.
Sam Rockwell is an American actor. He is known for appearing in independent films and portraying a wide variety of roles both comedic and dramatic in films such as Lawn Dogs (1997), The Green Mile (1999), Galaxy Quest (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Matchstick Men (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Moon (2009), Frost/Nixon (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Conviction (2010), Cowboys & Aliens (2011), Seven Psychopaths (2012), The Way, Way Back (2013), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Vice (2018), Jojo Rabbit (2019), Richard Jewell (2019), and The Best of Enemies (2019).
The Witches is a 1990 American dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Nicolas Roeg from a screenplay by Allan Scott, based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. The film stars Anjelica Huston and Mai Zetterling. The plot features evil witches who masquerade as ordinary women and follows a boy and his grandmother, who must find a way to foil their plans of turning children into mice.
Matchstick Men is a 2003 black comedy film directed by Ridley Scott and based on Eric Garcia's 2002 novel of the same name. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman. The film premiered on September 2, 2003 at the 60th Venice International Film Festival and was released in the United States on September 12, 2003. It received generally positive reviews and grossed $65 million against its $62 million budget.
Robert Clark Gregg Jr. is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for playing the original character Phil Coulson in films and television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from 2008 to 2021. Gregg also voiced Coulson in the animated television series Ultimate Spider-Man (2012–2017) and the video games Lego Marvel Super Heroes (2013), Marvel Heroes (2013), and Lego Marvel's Avengers (2016).
Enemies, A Love Story is a 1989 American romantic drama film directed by Paul Mazursky, based on the 1966 novel Enemies, A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The film stars Ron Silver, Anjelica Huston, Lena Olin and Margaret Sophie Stein. The film received positive reviews from critics and three nominations at the 62nd Academy Awards; Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Snuff is a novel by Chuck Palahniuk that was released on May 20, 2008.
Submarine is a 2010 coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Ayoade and starring Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor, Paddy Considine and Sally Hawkins. It was adapted from the 2008 novel Submarine by Joe Dunthorne, and is an international co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States. Submarine is Ayoade's directorial debut.
Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread is a collection of short stories published on May 26, 2015, and written by Chuck Palahniuk.
Thirst Street is a 2017 black comedy film directed by Nathan Silver, from a screenplay by Silver and C. Mason Wells. It stars Lindsay Burdge, Damien Bonnard, Esther Garrel, Lola Bessis, Jacques Nolot, Françoise Lebrun, Cindy Silver, Valerie Laury, and Anjelica Huston. The film is about an American woman who falls in love with a French man after a one-night stand, then decides to doggedly pursue him despite his lack of interest, with tragic results.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a 2022 sex comedy-drama film directed by Sophie Hyde and written by Katy Brand. The film stars Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack. The story revolves around a woman who seeks a young sex worker to help her experience pleasurable sex.