Choke

It's hard to imagine how Choke could be any better. Based faithfully on a story by one of my favorite authors (Chuck Pahlaniuk), staring an actor and actress I love (Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston), with good direction and a good soundtrack.

Vincent is a sex addict, who makes some extra money on the side by choking himself in restaurants and taking gifts from the people who save him. His mother is an aging freedom fighter hippie, who has a secret about Vincent's father. And the details as the plot unfolds are uniquely Pahlaniuk.

Unfortunately it's no Fight Club. The slick production and relentless energy are absent, which is a shame since they were so much fun there, even though they wouldn't really fit here. Instead, the film takes a leisurely stroll through dirty, gritty, faded reality and the people who inhabit it. Of course there's the humor that always ends up in his work, and it translates quite well to the screen. So while there's a vague sense that maybe the movie could have been just a bit more, it's still one of the better ones for this year.