Choke
Written and directed by Clark Gregg
Starring Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald, Brad William Henke, Clark Gregg, Bijou Philips, Gillian Jacobs

There are novels that one would think could never be adapted to the big screening and Chuck Palahniuk's 2001 novel "Choke" is certainly one of them, but character actor Clark Gregg (instantly recognizable from some of Mamet's films) has risen to the challenge, and his smartest move right out of the gate was to cast Sam Rockwell as the book's anti-hero Victor Mancini, a despicable sex addict who works at a colonial village recreation by day and who gets out of paying for his meals by pretending to choke on his food. Most of the money he earns goes to the care of his aging mother (Angelica Huston) who is suffering from the early stages of dementia, and though Victor only hopes to find out who his real father is, things get more complicated when he becomes involved with his mother's attending physician, Dr. Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald) whose theory on how to cure his mother involves Victor getting her pregnant

It's an odd premise for a novel and an even stranger one for a movie, and though "Choke" was never one of Palahniuk's more accessible books, Gregg does a commendable job with his debut, never trying to outmatch the stylish techniques used by David Fincher's "Fight Club," an extremely hard act to follow even for a more experienced director. Instead, Gregg goes for a more straight forward and noticeably low-fi approach, keeping much of the novel's narrative text, driven by Victor's filthy mind as he's constantly reminded of his casual sexual encounters with the faculty at his mother's nursing home.

Sam Rockwell's Victor Mancini is certainly cut from the same cloth as other Palahniuk anti-heroes, a guy who's just so loathsome that you can't help but be entertained by his every word and move, and like in "Fight Club," Palahniuk explores his fascination with group therapy, in this case Victor's Sex Addicts Anonymous, which he mostly uses to sleep with a troubled girl from a halfway house for a tryst in the bathroom. There are also parts of the story that might have influenced the NBC sitcom "My Name Is Earl" particularly Victor's relationship with his best friend Denny, played by Brad William Henke, who might cause you to do a double take due to his similarities with Ethan Suplee's Randy. Over the course of the movie, we see flashbacks to Victor's childhood going from one foster mother to the next while his real mother looms in the background, showing up to give the boy tips on surviving in the life before kidnapping him and starting the cycle anew. In the present day, she doesn't even recognize her son, so Victor pretends to be lawyer, while Denny plays Victor's part in trying to get the truth about Victor's father. As Victor's mother both in the present and past, Anjelica Huston gives one of her more memorable performances, one that almost surpasses the always funny Rockwell. Gregg himself plays Victor's boss at his day job, but for the most part, the film stays focused on the relationship between Victor, his mother, Denny and Paige.

After a fairly dark and cynical journey with an odd but brief foray into a scientific theory that Victor might be a clone from the sacred foreskin of Jesus Christ—this is Palahniuk, let's not forget--Victor's story does end on an upbeat romantic end with an impressive extended make-out scene during the end credits.

All in all, "Choke" isn't the second coming of cinema that some might have hoped for after "Fight Club," but it gets points for sticking to Palahniuk's edgy humor without pulling punches. That being the case, it might be hard for those not conditioned to the frank nature of the sexuality and the generally cynical tone of Palahniuk's work to get very far, although it's much easier to swallow (no pun intended) due to the winning performances from Rockwell and Huston.

Rating: 7.5/10

The Escapist
Directed by Rupert Wyatt; Written by Rupert Wyatt and Daniel Hardy
Starring Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Damian Lewis, Liam Cunningham, Seu Jorge, Dominic Cooper, Steven Macintosh

This Irish prison escape thriller with a twist is one of the nice little surprises of this year's Sundance Film Festival, and as a long-time fan of HBO's "Oz," I certainly can appreciate what Rupert Wyatt has done with the genre, particularly in his stylish use of cinematography and clever story structuring, as well as the brilliant casting of Brian Cox as Frank Perry, a lifelong prisoner who decides to risk everything to save his daughter, when he discovers she had an overdose from drugs. In order to plan the perfect escape, Frank recruits a disparate group of inmates to face what might seem like insurmountable obstacles.

Wyatt's return to the festival after winning an Audience Award for his debut "Dark Days" starts in the middle with the group of men trying to escape the maximum security prison, before cutting back to a few days earlier where we're introduced to each of them as they join up with Frank. At that point, it might take maybe ten to twenty minutes to figure out who all these characters are and their relationship to each other, but as soon as the movie gets into the actual recruitment and planning of the escape—intercut with the escape itself—things quickly pick up, as Wyatt sets the perfect pace to create the optimum effect, filling the story with many intricate plot developments to make the escape seem more challenging.

While Cox is clearly doing his best work as the crux of the plan, the film wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the fantastic ensemble cast that includes an almost unrecognizable Joseph Fiennes as the crafty and manic Frank Drake, a boxer who jury-rigs devices to help in the escape, Liam Cunningham as Frank's right hand man Brodie, and Dominic Cooper as the young Lacey, a new inmate who shares Frank's cell and is taken under his wing for protection, while Seu Jorge from "City of God" plays the dreadlocked Viv Batista, the prison's resident chemist who makes the popular homemade drugs that's the cause of many problems. The main antagonist—which is ironic since this takes place in a prison full of killers and thieves—is Damian Lewis as the prison's resident drug lord and kingpin Rizza, whose drug-addicted brother Tony (Steven Mackintosh) causes trouble for Frank's crew when he learns about the escape and plans to tell his brother, who won't be happy about plans being made without his consent.

Wyatt has created an exceedingly stylish film with a great soundtrack that shows him to be able to produce work on par with that of Guy Ritchie and other popular crime filmmakers, and it's even more impressive when you realize what Wyatt was able to do with presumably not a lot of money.

There is a major twist at the end that will either be accepted by those enthused by the film's evasion of predictability or it will piss off those looking for something a bit more positive and upbeat, but either way, those looking for an innovative new take on the prison genre should be pleased with the latest from this talented filmmaker.

Rating: 8.5/10

Donkey Punch
Directed by Olly Blackburn; Written by David Bloom and Olly Blackburn
Starring Robert Boulter, Sian Breckin, Tom Burke, Nichola Burley, Julian Morris, Jay Taylor, Jaime Winstone

One of the things that the Sundance Film Festival has become known for over the years is its cutting edge indie horror with "The Blair Witch Project" and "Open Water" being buzzworthy graduates of the Sundance Park City at Midnight program. The latest British horror flick from Olly Blackbur is very different than one might expect knowing the premise of a group of partying pretty young things on a yacht who must deal with an unexpected death during a violent sex act. Really, it was only a matter of time before someone took one of the presumably made-up sex acts with funny names that has done the rounds on the internet for years, and used it as the instigator for terror. The "donkey punch" has long been a myth claiming that hitting your sex partner on the back of the neck just before climax enhances the orgasm. In fact, it's a boneheaded move that could actually hurt or kill someone, and that's exactly what happens when three female friends from England vacationing in pain to help one of them get over a bad break-up are coerced onto a yacht by three good-looking fellows they meet at a club. After taking various recreational drugs, five of them retire downstairs for a bit of casual sex when the titular act leaves them with a corpse. The guys want to dump her body overboard to avoid being implicated in the death, which unfortunately, was all captured on video tape.

What's interesting about this movie is that not knowing anything about it going in, one might expect a lighter tongue-in-cheek film due to the comical nature of the title, but in fact, it's a gravely serious psychological horror film that deals with the aftermath of an accidental death that gets progressively worse as factions are formed, friendships dissolve and they each conspire against the other trying to protect their own asses. Anyone who's seen teen horror movies like "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" might presume they know what part each character will play in the events and mostly be mistaken, since things rarely go where one thinks.

Olly Blackburn proves himself to be a director to be reckoned with, although his roots as a commercial and music video director are sometimes blatant due to the artsy and stylish way he creates a shot. Even so, he's put together a fantastic young cast of new faces, the clear standouts being Nichola Burley as the mousy Tammi and Tom Burke, who offers much needed humor as DJ wannabe Bluey, whose attempts at ultra-cool lingo makes him somewhat hard to understand. (Imagine a heavier set Ali G.) While the others might just seem like a bunch of pretty faces, there's a lot of fine, presumably classically trained actors in the bunch that really helps sell the tension of the situation. Even so, horror fans worried that the movie might be all talk and mind games should also enjoy the gory ways that Blackburn kills off each member of the boating party, though none of it seems gratuitous and Blackburn always deals with the repercussions of each death in a way that we don't see very often. The movie peaks a bit too early after a couple of the more spectacular deaths and sometimes it goes overboard with the amount of dialogue and drama, but the intensity of the terror never relaxes even for a second, which keeps one riveted to the screen.

Despite the originality of the premise in "Donkey Punch," there are certainly familiar elements from other horror thrillers, as well as a disturbing amount of misogyny with how the women are treated by the men, first as objects and then as disposable witnesses, and yet, this is a far better written and cleverly film than the normal Hollywood teen horror flick. If nothing else, the unique use of character dynamics combined with Blackburn's keen visual sense makes it a thinking person's horror flick that surpasses its genre by introducing a viable new cinematic voice and vision. Or maybe it's just the British accents that make it seem classier despite the movie being centered around an extended hardcore sex scene.

Rating: 8.5/10

Downloading Nancy
Directed by Johan Renck; Written by Pamela Cuming & Lee Ross
Starring Maria Bello, Jason Patrick, Rufus Sewell, Amy Brenneman

For every "Little Miss Sunshine" that comes out of Sundance, it's become almost mandatory there be movies like "Hound Dog" or "Chapter 27," movies that arrive at Sundance with buzz surrounding their cast or subject matter, but after being seen, are so universally loathed and repulsed that they're never seen or heard from again. This year, that honor goes to "Downloading Nancy," a drearily depressing and mostly grueling drama based on the true story of Nancy Stockwell, a chronically suicidal woman who fell in love with a man she met online and then convinced him to kill her.

Music video directors Johan Renck's association with Jonas Akerlund, the Swedish director responsible for controversial sex and drug-filled videos for Madonna and the Prodigy and the nearly unwatchable "Spun" should be a dead giveaway that this is going to be a difficult movie, but it's so painfully slow and depressing with scenes even more disturbing than the worst that David Cronenberg's "Crash" had to offer, yet instead of shocking the viewer, it just turns them off from being interested in Nancy's mindset going into her final journey.

Playing Nancy allows the usually great Maria Bello to continue exploring her penchant for nudity and graphic sex scenes, taking it to a disturbing new level to portray this troubled woman, but we've never given any reason to empathize with her or feel bad for what she's gone through that forced her to leave her uncaring husband. Rufus Sewell plays said husband Albert, who returns home one day to find his wife gone, apparently having met a man online and gone to rendezvous with him for reasons we only learn later, and the flashbacks showing the marriage dissolving alternate with Nancy's therapy sessions with her psychiatrist (Amy Brenneman), where we learn about her ongoing problems with depression and "cutting" which are exacerbated by the faltering marriage.

Once Nancy meets up with Louis, the unapologetically terse man she meets online played by Jason Patrick, we watch them play all sorts of mind games and act out their sexual fantasies, but while her plan is to have him kill her, it becomes exceedingly more difficult the more time they spend together and the closer they become. After all the build-up to what presumably would be Nancy's gruesome fate--by that point, it's hard not to feel that killing Nancy would at least put an end to this torturous movie--she's casually strangled by Louis in such a low-key way, and we never even see how he disposes of her body, something that's glossed over as if it might be too much for the viewer after some of the atrocities we've been forced to endure beforehand.

Even before that, we see Louis show up at Albert's home under the illusion that he's there to work on Nancy's computer, but a confrontation ensues when Albert realizes this is the man Nancy left him for, leading to a stranger scene than the S&M tinged sex scenes, as the two men have drinks with a couple of Albert's visiting business partners and casually discuss Nancy's fate.

Even though this should be a fairly straight-ahead tale to tell, Renck's use of disjointed non-linear storytelling combined with shaky camerawork, extreme close-ups, and rapid-fire editing serves very little purpose to the story and makes it even harder to follow.

The shame is that these are all good actors giving decent performances but the subject matter and the way it's handled is so reproachable and aggravating in its attempts at complexity that it makes this one of those grueling and painful to stomach "what were they thinking?" art films, that makes one even angrier when the movie ends and you realize it's based on actual events, something that wasn't clear from the beginning. Maybe knowing that the purpose of the movie was to try to bring this disturbing true story to light would have made it worthwhile, but the places it goes in the process of telling the story makes it unquestionably one of the worst movies Maria Bello has ever done including that awful "Attack on Precinct 13" remake. This isn't just bad, it's "Tideland bad."

Rating: 2/10

Baghead
Written and directed by the Duplass Brothers
Starring Steve Zissis, Ross Partridge, Greta Gerwig, Elise Muller

The Duplass Brothers' follow-up to "The Puffy Chair" is another one of those Sundance movies that comes completely out of left field in the way it mixes genres and never really goes where you expect. Centered around four acting friends who make a retreat to the woods to write the film that will help them make a mark, "Baghead" pays homage to past Sundance alumnus "The Blair Witch Project" and classic slasher films like "Friday the 13th" without losing sight of its roots as an indie character-based comedy.

We meet the four main characters as they view a low-budget feature called "I Am Naked" at the L.A. Underground Film Festival, giving them the idea to write their own movie if they ever want to break out of the "extras" ghetto. The slightly heavy and balding Chad (Steve Zissis) has been interested in Greta Gerwig's sexy Michelle for some time, and he hopes that spending a weekend in a cabin with her will move him out of the "friends" stage. His best friend Matt (Ross Partridge) has been having an on-again off-again romance with the slightly shallower L.A. type Catherine (Elise Muller), the latter who hopes to rekindle things over the weekend. Things don't exactly go as planned as the always drunk Michelle starts having dreams about a scary man in the woods with a bag over his head, inspiring the group to turn their efforts to write a horror movie, but she also starts flirting with Matt, causing friction with the other two members of the group. It soon becomes clear that maybe this "Baghead" Michelle keeps seeing is someone real, who begins to terrorize the group leading to a rather tragic end to their retreat.

Going into this knowing the past efforts by the Duplass Brothers, one might immediately assume this to be a semi-dull talking heads relationship comedy, and while some of that is there, the avenues the film takes into spoofing the classic slasher horror flick--complete with chimes to warn the viewer of it switching into "horror mode" before the appearance of "Baghead"--reminds one a bit of the British comedy "Severance" except that this mysterious assailant is never quite what he seems and there's none of the gore despite there being some great scares.

The reason why the movie works better than the typical horror movie is that the Duplass brothers spend enough time developing the characters and setting up situations before introducing the horror element, and the small cast really gets one to enjoy their characters. 24-year-old New York playwright Greta Gerwig, who last appeared in the Mumblecore group effort "Hannah Takes the Stairs" (which I hated), proves to be an actress to watch, as she's quite photogenic and unafraid to bare herself on screen, even able to make belching seem sexy in this one. There's truly some potential for Gerwig to become like Parker Posey, one of those actress whose movies are worth seeking out, although it would be nice to see how she fares in something more scripted. Zissis and Partridge offer a lot of the film's funniest bits creating a natural rapport as unlikely friends who end up fighting over the same girl.

Parts of the movie make it seem like the Duplass brothers and their cast are making it up as they go along—some might argue that's part of the charm of the "Mumblecore" scene—but however this idea evolved and regardless of how much is scripted or improvised, it's generally charming, funny and sweet movie that's far more accessible than past efforts, proving that the Duplass brothers may be ready to make the leap to bigger budget fare sooner rather than later.

Rating: 7/10