Older Reviews

CHOKE (2008)

CHOKE is a grey comedy about a sex-addicted med-school dropout named Victor (the brilliant Sam Rockwell), who is the sole support of dementia-inflicted mom (Angelica Huston). Hospitalized and years of abusing drugs, abducting young Victor from a string of foster mothers and running from the authorities, she claims to no longer recognize him and thus won’t tell him the one thing he craves so desperately to know: the identity of his father. To pay for her expensive upkeep, Victor splits his time between working at a goofy Colonial American theme park and conning sympathy money out of strangers he picks randomly to rescue him from choking in restaurants. One day, while visiting his mother, Victor meets Paige (Kelly Macdonald), who proposes a most unorthodox treatment for his dying mom, and who turns out to be … well ... I’ll leave it at that. There’s really nothing more I can say to make this quirky movie sound as enchanting as it is. Don’t miss it.