CHOKE
Year: 2008
USA: Fox Searchlight
UK: Twentieth Century Fox
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald, Brad William Henke, Bijou Phillips, Clark Gregg, Joel Grey, Kate Blumberg, Kathryn Alexander, Gillian Jacobs, Paz de la Huerta, Viola Harris, Jonah Bobo, Willi Burke, Heather Burns, David Fonteno, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Matt Malloy, Mary B McCann, Matt Gerald, David Shumbris, Marty Murphy, Neil Pepe, Sebastian Sozzi, Peggy Pope, Donald Rizzo, Mike S Ryan, Melinda Wade, Jordan Lage, Solo Scott, Suzanne Shepherd, Michelle Hurst, Kate Udall, Yolonda Ross, Denise Raimi
Director: Clark Gregg
Country: USA
USA: 89 mins
UK: 92 mins
USA Rated: R for strong sexual content, nudity and language
UK Certificate: 18 contains strong sex and sex references
USA Release Date: 26 September 2008 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 21 November 2008
Synopsis
"If you are going to read this, don't bother. After a couple of pages, you won't want to be here. So forget it. Go away. Get out while you're still in one piece. Save yourself."
- Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
From maverick author Chuck Palahniuk (FIGHT CLUB) and breakout new writer-director Clark Gregg comes the subversively comedic tale of Victor Mancini, con artist, sex addict, Colonial village re-enactor, angst-filled son, serial restaurant choker...and unsuspecting romantic antihero for our unsettling times.
Victor (Sam Rockwell), in an effort to pay for his demented mother's (Academy Award® winner Anjelica Huston) private healthcare, engages in a brazen scam. While dining in upscale restaurants, he deliberately chokes on his food, allowing himself to be "saved" by wealthy good Samaritans who grow so close to him in the wake of their heroic Heimlich Manoeuvres, they lavish him with cheques. His day job at a historical theme park is no more conventional; and when he isn't busy being a put upon Pilgrim, gagging violently or visiting the mother who doesn't recognize him, Victor is cruising sexaholic recovery meetings for action.
It's no wonder Victor feels adrift. But when his declining mother hints at the identity of his long lost father, Victor hopes it can finally provide the answers he has been searching for. With the help of his fellow sex addict Denny (Brad William Henke), Victor befriends his mother's alluring young physician (Golden Globe® nominee Kelly Macdonald), who leads him to believe his origins may be far more shockingly divine than he ever could have imagined. So is Victor Mancini still the no-good loser he always thought he would be, or could he possibly be some crazy kind of saviour?
CHOKE, which won the Special July Prize for Best Work by an Ensemble Cast at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, is not only a cathartic and romantic satire about uncontrolled lust, lost faith, childhood trauma, mad addictions, bizarre fantasies and blockages both emotionally and literally, but also about second chances, redemptive moments and true love - that is, it's about modern life.