Choke

Choke on DVD

Choke is now out on DVD. Choke tells the story of Rockwell (Snow Angels) who plays Victor Mancini, a con man who regularly ditches his sex addiction meetings to hook up with the girl (Paz del la Huerta) he's sponsoring in the group. In between shifts at a colonial reenactment village, Victor goes to restaurants and pretends to choke on food, enlisting strangers to rescue him and later send him money. And occasionally he visits his mother Ida (Anjelica Huston), who has been institutionalized for mental illness. But when he meets a young doctor named Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald) who offers an unlikely solution to help repair his mother's fractured mind, Victor begins to reconsider his duplicitous, self-destructive lifestyle.

The DVD includes:

• Commentary with Director Clark Gregg and Sam Rockwell
  
• A Conversation with Clark Gregg and Chuck Palahniuk
  
• Deleted Scenes
  
• Gag Reel

Gregg and Rockwell deliver an insightful, honest and extremely mellow commentary as they softly offer their observations on the filming of the adaptation. These are smart guys, unafraid of the process and always willing to talk about why something didn't work, or worked tremendously well, and Gregg, as the film's writer, does an admirable job discussing the arduous tasking of adapting such a rich, strange and complex novel for the screen.

The 15-minute conversation between Gregg and Palahniuk is made more interesting due largely to Palahniuk's legitimate interest in what Gregg took away from the novel. Eschewing all evidence of possessiveness, Palahniuk seems fascinated by the process of adaptation and clearly captivated by Gregg's creative and editorial choices. The deleted and extended scenes are fairly forgettable with the exception of the "rock house" conclusion, which gets a great explanation in Gregg and Rockwell's additional commentary. The gag reel is easily dismissible, as well. Overall, however, the real substance is the commentary and the conversation.

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Sam Rockwell on "Choke"

CraveOnline catches up with "Choke" star Sam Rockwell. Rockwell talks about tackling his character as a sex addict which included attending sex addiction meetings, documentaries, and reading the book. Rockwell says he likes the fact that "Choke" was not shown in some theaters due to its sexual content. "Choke" stars Sam Rockwell, Brad William Henke, Kelly Macdonald and Anjelica Huston.

"...I like that. That means we did something right. It's a romantic comedy. It's just a couple of breasteses. We showed the ass. I show my ass. That movie's so tame compared to the book..."

Read the full interview here.

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Interview: Sam Rockwell masters addiction, redemption in ‘Choke’

The Chicago Film Examiner has interviewed Sam Rockwell, who stars as Victor Mancini in "Choke". Rockwell talks about relating to his character in terms of breaking boundaries and shares his thoughts on Victor's sex addiction, and how serious the disorder really is. Rockwell also dishes on working with Kelly MacDonald and his penchant for playing odd and dark characters.

"...I like darker characters. I like playing bad guys. I think I’m drawn to them because those were the characters I liked from the movies when I was growing up. I liked ‘Taxi Driver,’ ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘The Deer Hunter’..."

Read the full article here.

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