Choke

** - This 2008 film which claims to be a black comedy is based on a book by sensationalist hack author Chuck Palahniuk (also responsible for the reprehensible “Fight Club) and, quite frankly, it is not very funny and isn’t even all that black. Palahniuk has always struck me as one of those guys that puts on a macho show (like joining clubs where guys whale on each other) but tempers that by faking some sort of addiction to make himself seem vulnerable and therefore get laid as much as possible. Not the noblest of goals, in my opinion, and a very primitive, instinctual type of behavior. This movie showcases the second half of that equation, as Sam Rockwell plays a ‘sex addict’ (probably the fakest of all fake addictions that someone could pretend to have) who goes to meetings to help fight his problem, but always ends up bopping some slut in the bathroom instead. His senile mother (Angelica Huston) is in a senior care facility and makes all sort of bizarre claims about Rockwell being some sort of half clone of Jesus that was created using an ancient relic which turns out to have been Jesus’ foreskin. It’s all very weird, but simultaneously so laid back in pace and demeanor that all the attempts at comedy falls flat. Rockwell is good – as he always is – but even he can’t save this from getting a fairly low rating, due at least in part to my hatred of the author that wrote the book that this is based on.