Choke - the simulant
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Choke - the simulant |
| Original title | choke |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Clark Gregg |
| script | Clark Gregg |
| production |
Johnathan Dorfman Temple Fennell Beau Flynn Tripp Vinson |
| music | Nathan Larson |
| camera | Tim Orr |
| cut | Joe Klotz |
| occupation | |
| |
Choke - The simulant is an American black comedy film from the year 2008 . Directed by Clark Gregg , who also wrote the screenplay based on the novel of the same name (Eng. Title: The Simulant) by Chuck Palahniuk .
action
The sex addict Victor Mancini dropped out of medical school in order to be able to finance his mother Ida's stay in a private nursing and mental hospital. On the one hand, he earns money as an actor in a replica colony of the 18th century. In addition, he regularly fakes attacks of suffocation in restaurants in order to be saved by the wealthy and then supported. Every evening he visits his mother, who no longer recognizes him but takes him for her lawyer. She once told him that her son should finally find out that his father was not a Norwegian traveling salesman, as she always told him.
Paige Marshall also dropped out of medical school. Because of an imperfect grade and her parents' violent reaction to it, she went catatonic and was admitted to the same institution. She is so impressed by Ida's stories about her son that she poses as a doctor in order to approach Victor, whose advances she initially rejects. She reveals to him that his mother has some form of dementia that has been made worse by years of drug use.
Victor manages to outsmart his mother into thinking that he is his friend and colleague Denny. In order to open up to the supposed son, she expelled Victor from the room. In the prison chapel, Paige tells him about an experimental and illegal therapy option with the help of genetically compatible stem cells. Victor is supposed to get Paige pregnant, but this fails because of his erectile problems. Meanwhile, Ida Denny does not tell who Victor's father is, but suggests that he read her diary. Since Victor doesn't speak Italian, Paige pretends to be able to translate it for him from this language. According to this, Ida allowed herself to be fertilized in an experiment with genetic material from a religious relic, the foreskin of Jesus. Being the descendant of Jesus impresses Victor so much that he wonders why he is so bad and why he can only have sex with women he has no emotional connection with.
When his mother feels worse, she recognizes him again. She confesses to Victor that she stole him from a stroller and that she is not his birth mother at all. Immediately afterwards she suffocates on the pudding Victor has been feeding her in the meantime. When the approaching Paige tries to revive her, Victor sees her patient bracelet. She confesses her story and her feelings for Victor. In order not to be associated with the death of his mother, Victor escapes from the clinic. A little later he is arrested for allegedly touching a 90-year-old woman in the asylum. He learns from the police that Paige, who is wanted in connection with Ida's death, has fired herself. During the interrogation he tries to distract the police with another simulated suffocation. He gets into a trance state in which he comes to the realization that people are neither bad nor perfect and that they let the world tell them what they are, even though they could decide for themselves.
In the end, Paige meets Victor in an airplane toilet, where they have sex with each other, just as Victor once had first anonymous sex in an airplane toilet. He has broken the circle that is propagated in the self-help group for sex addicts that he visits with Denny - although he has so far regularly succumbed to the temptation of one of the group's participants.
Reviews
The organizers of the Sundance Film Festival wrote that the black comedy explores the darker side of human behavior. It is built around the "breathtaking" portrayal of Sam Rockwell , who seems to have merged with the character played ("he fully inhabits the character") and thus does justice to the comedic as well as the dramatic aspects of his role.
Film critics saw atmospheric weaknesses in the implementation of the novel. With Choke , according to James Berardinelli , Gregg did maintain Palahniuk's language, but “the men and women who populate the film look like the half-finished fantasy constructs of a filmmaker.” He lacks the “little scenes that lead us to see the protagonists as more than to look at people with a quick grasp of things and cynical views. ”Nevertheless, the work is technically successful:“ The film winds its way between comedy and tragedy with amazing ease. Some scenes are hilarious, others are dark. Director Gregg [...] guides his actors safely through the minefield of changing tones. The four main actors are good […]. The chemistry is right between Rockwell and Macdonald, and even better between Rockwell and Henke. ” According to Berardinelli, the main problem with Choke is that the film is progressing too quickly. “The characters don't get a chance to really rise. [...] Despite solid performances and witty dialogues, Choke never gets us to slip into Victor's skin. "
Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Republic criticized the lack of sophistication in Choke . “It's an exaggerated frolic. But the acting is consistently good and well-balanced. ”Rockwell in particular plays his role“ with such pressing determination that it is impossible not to be on Victor's side in almost every situation, even knowing that he is wrong ". He is a good actor and one likes to watch all sorts of things, but "in choke you pretty much have to do that too."
Amy Biancolli of the Houston Chronicle said, “It's not a great movie by any means. It's by no means a bad one. Parts of it moved me, fascinated me or made me laugh out loud. [...] It is often unbalanced, sometimes thoughtless, and yet crowned with a sharp, dashing performance that seduced me to empathize. He is cynical in his portrayal of sex, gullible in his portrayal of love and alternately romantic, drastic, inspired, amusing, disgusting, sentimental, tart, spiritual and funny. "However, the film is" hardly up to its own opposites, staggers from black Comedy and very pictorial pounding to attacks of emotional confession with cheeky music. [...] Gregg's unsteady direction dampens the humor and confuses the kitsch, which results in a tonally confused film. ”Rockwell's performance, on the other hand, is“ a prime example of enchanting Freudian talk ”.
USA Today's Claudia Puig wrote, “Choke can be difficult to swallow, but not for the reasons intended. Yes, it is not for the sensitive or the easily offended, but its filth is more superficially shocking than evil satirical. Although there are moments of usable black humor, it feels slick and lacks the malicious quality of Chuck Palahniuk's novel. [...] There are some clever dialogues and a few grotesquely funny situations, but the film feels too expansive and incoherent to be any really absurd fun. "
Dennis Harvey found in Variety that Choke was "a much more undemanding attempt" compared to Fight Club . He doesn't suffer so much from “the smaller production than from the direction and packaging, which cinematically just don't fit Palahniuk's imaginative swing.” His “farcical silliness” is “appropriately present, but the frenzied pace and the underlying nihilism in Fight Club so vividly transferred to the screen are hardly detectable here. "The film received plenty of laughs," although in a much more conventional, 'outrageous' indie comedy style than the original material had suggested. "Gregg, who played the supporting role Charlie is funny, and his staff “come up with an everyday shiny look, uninspired set piece props, and an unbalanced performance tenor. That results in a rather distracting bad taste comedy than the truly weird parallel universe of the novel. ”However,“ some narrative ideas and visual metaphors will still appeal to fans of the ham ”.
Ruthe Stein praised the actors' achievements in the otherwise “annoying little film that wants to be lascivious but is rather silly”: “The main cast grows beyond the […] material […]. Rockwell walks through the film with a permanently finished look. ”Huston also managed to“ be believable both as the bedridden Ida and as the 30-year-old younger. ”Ty Burr said the film was“ not disappointing for what it was is, but for what it could have been. The film is well worth seeing and at times quite captivating, but [...] it should be as borderline as its hero. "Kyle Smith's conclusion was that Choke tries to" be dirty, but only manages to be dirty. "
The lexicon of international films said: "Uninspired, poorly staged adaptation of a novel, which is largely exhausted in a string of sex adventures and humorous sayings."
Awards
The film entered the Sundance Film Festival as a competition entry, where Clark Gregg was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston , Kelly Macdonald and Brad William Henke won the Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble. At the 2008 Satellite Awards , the film was nominated for Best Comedy, Rockwell was nominated for Best Comedy Leading Actor, Huston was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and the Casting Society of America nominated casting Mary Vernieu for an Artios Award in the Outstanding Achievement category in Casting - Low Budget Feature - Drama / Comedy .
backgrounds
Chuck Palahniuk sold the film rights to his novel to Bandeira Entertainment in 2001 , and in 2006 they went to Universal Pictures . The film was shot in New Jersey . The cost of production was 3.4 million US dollars estimated. The film had its world premiere on January 21, 2008 at the Sundance Film Festival .
Web links
- Choke - The simulant in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Choke - The simulator in the German dubbing index
- Choke - The Simulant at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.sundance.org/Description, accessed on January 22, 2008 ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ James Berardinelli: Choke , reelviews.net
- ^ Bill Goodykoontz: Choke , The Arizona Republic, September 25, 2008
- ^ Amy Biancolli: Choke , Houston Chronicle, Sept. 26, 2008
- ↑ Claudia Puig: 'Choke' tries to throttle viewers with its outrageousness , USA Today, September 25, 2008
- ↑ Dennis Harvey: Choke ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Variety, January 23, 2008
- ^ Ruthe Stein: Choke , San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 26, 2008
- ↑ Ty Burr, 'Choke' fails to go far enough , The Boston Globe, Sept. 26, 2008
- ↑ Kyle Smith, Wringing The Joy Out Of Sex , New York Post, Sept. 26, 2008
- ↑ Choke - The Simulant. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ www.variety.com, accessed January 22, 2008
- ↑ www.darkhorizons.com, August 28, 2006 ( Memento from July 24, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Choke Locations, accessed January 22, 2008
- ↑ Choke release dates, accessed January 22, 2008
