Choke

Day 4

Film 3

I did not post anything yesterday due to my lack of computer, so I'll be doing a little catch up tonight. That being said, I was able to squeeze in two more movies on Sunday night, and including my addition for today I have gotten through 5 films, none of them as bad as the Spider-Man film.

I will be attempting a bit more fluid style here, it seems like with the rigid structure of the last couple posts I did not get to say what I wanted, or felt very repetitive. So, without titles, here we go:

I came across Choke late night on Sunday, not quite tired enough to get to sleep, and not quite awake enough to do anything more than plopping in front of the television and surfing. Going into the film I do not know what I was thinking. Like Fight Club it was based of a Chuck Palahniuk novel which is enough for me to raise a brow. I have not consumed a great deal of Palahniuk, so I am no master of his entire collection. What I have consumed has been biterly cynical to the point of hilarity, and armed with a violent dark nature that is anything but discrete. This is right up my alley when it comes to the stuff I go out of my way to see.

Choke followed the life of a poor sex addict, his small depressing life, and his relationship with his mother. It is mainly set inside a mental hospital, and it seems that one of the themes of the movie is that everyone in this world is just a little bit insane. In fact, the one normal character in the entire film turns out to be a mental patient themselves. Choke analyzes this relationship, among others as its main character attempts to seek some sort of release from his destructive sex driven lifestyle. It lacks the big budget effects and loud shouting climaxes we are used to in film. It does not need them though, the story is quiet fueled by the power of some jarring moments of the most pitch black humor you can see. (And the ending, it is amazing! But I cannot spoil that last scene.)

Choke is not the greatest movie though, speckled with a few almost irrelevant scenes and powered by respectable, but not memorable, performances with a couple twists you could see from a mile away and an comedic expectation. None of this really hurts the film, but it keeps it from reaching the higher echelons beyond being a good movie. More importantly, this film is sculpted as a black comedy, there are parts that are tasteless, vulgar and obscene, which make anyone squeamish. This is why you do not read Slaughterhouse V with a pro war attitude, and why if you are easily offended you stick to the more boring and artistically dead things like Transformers.

Choke is a piece of art after all. It is not perfect, but allows for enough interpretation to allow anyone who likes to chew on that sort of thing to muse on it.

Speaking of musings lets do that:

There were a couple of motifs I noticed throughout the film, and seeing as I have only watched it once these things were the things that stood out most.

What is mental illness?

The film attacks this problem more subtly than Cuckoo's Nest, but seeing as it is set almost constantly inside a mental hospital it would be hard not to touch on the issue.

The director seems to connect mental illness with the need to belong, choosing a sex addict as their main character. This character must have physical contact with anyone, and everyone in order to feel complete, but even then feels empty. The mother character steals a child in order to fulfil her needs, and is locked away from it. The best friend, who is a chronic masturbater, finds love and overcomes his troubles.

Every character in the film seems to be replacing real loving interactions with some sort of substitute and for it is unstable, even insane.

This idea is cemented through a repeated action, through the self induced choking by the main character so as to scam their savior into sending them money each month, and through the need for the mentally ill to find a messiah to forgive them and absolve them of their sins.

Why do we need a God?

This couples with the first motif, and is a little less pronounced. There is a part of the film where the main character believes himself to be the spawn of Jesus. Apart from the obvious irony for a sex addict to be a minor deity (although now that I think about it those Greek gods got it on A LOT) it helps highlight the main characters good sides, and gives him a hope for redemption.

This is shown as the main character willingly takes the blame for all of the problems of the old women inside the mental hospital, willingly admitting that he raped an old woman (even though he did not), and absolving others of their regrets by just saying albeit hastily 'I forgive you.' It is very godlike of him.

I had more but they just drifted away. Damn!

Our final result:

Choke was an enjoyable movie. It is not perfect. It is not for everyone. Those who would enjoy it however should find it more than worth their time. If you are easily offended, or have a hard time watching more subtle flicks without falling asleep, this one is not for you.