Choke.

"Adapted from a half-baked novel by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk, Choke chronicles yet another anomic antihero/narrator (Sam Rockwell, at 39 about a decade too old for the part) struggling against anomie amid abandonment issues," writes Bill Weber in Slant. "Choke makes its source material's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink absurdism broader, less expressive and cheaply reductive."

"The self-described cultists can talk amongst themselves about this movie's omissions and distortions of its source, but there's no question of its basic fidelity to Palahniuk's pet themes - particularly that memory and imagination, especially where trauma is concerned, are subjective and selective." Jonathan Kiefer.

Updated through 9/24.

"What wisdom does Choke offer to he who endures?" asks Nick Pinkerton at indieWIRE. "'Sometimes it's not important which way you jump - just that you jump.' So the dirty jokes hide a heart of platitudes. Choke should be flung into the dumpster of preening, 'edgy' pop nihilism somewhere under Dexter and Clerks 2, and immediately forgotten."

This "is the first movie chockablock with nude women I've ever fought to stay awake at," notes David Edelstein in New York.

"Palahniuk didn't just write Choke - to a degree, he lived it." A profile from Simon Abrams for the New York Press.

At BlackBook, Ben Barna chats with director Clark Gregg, Rockwell and Palahniuk. Sample question: "If you could live inside any single cartoon, which cartoon would you want to live inside for the rest of your life?"

Earlier: Ed Champion and reviews from Sundance.

Updates, 9/24: "Gregg knows better than to try matching Fincher's gaga aesthetic choices, so he heads a hundred miles in the opposite direction by aiming for grungy authenticity," writes Sean Burns in the Philadelphia Weekly. "[T]he choice undercuts this very funny film once Choke's storyline exits the realm of the rational."

"It took a long time, but Sam Rockwell has finally become Edward Norton." Josef Braun explains.

"Rockwell could probably play a disaffected ferret like Victor in his sleep, but that easy believability is key, especially when he's forced to reckon with his attraction to nurse Paige (Kelly Macdonald)," writes Jesse Hassenger in the L Magazine. "Their halting relationship is a highlight, a through-line that Gregg doesn't grasp with enough firmness. Instead, he celebrates Palahniuk's voice - something the author can do all by himself."

"What, then, is the appeal of Chuck Palahniuk's writing?" asks Paul Matwychuk. "The other day at the office, I wondered aloud who reads these books, to which my co-editor Fawnda Mithrush wearily replied, 'A whole lot of ex-boyfriends.'"

Mike Russell talks with Palahniuk for the Oregonian.

And Aaron Hillis talks with him for IFC.

"Palahniuk and Gregg, who has perhaps the film's funniest role as the theme park's strict taskmaster, both suffer the same flaw," writes Robert Wilonsky in the Voice: They explain and explain again the genesis of Victor's demons, to the point where the novel and movie play almost like parodies of novels and movies in which a character has to get in touch with his feelings in order to become a better man. Basically, Victor's gonna fuck himself crazy or fuck himself sane - yawn."

Another talk with Palahniuk: Lauren Wissot at the SpoutBlog.

Posted by dwhudson at September 22, 2008 6:54 AM