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Sundance: Quint gives the Heimlich to the Chuck Palahniuk adaptation CHOKE, starring Sam Rockwell!!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Up front I have to confess that I’ve never read any of Chuck Palahnuik’s books. I actually have bought a few and have them at home (CHOKE and SURVIVOR… and I will put in order in for HAUNTED soon).
So I can’t review this movie from the perspective of someone familiar with Palahnuik’s written work; this story in particular (Rav is a little more in the know and will have his own review shortly, I’m sure), but I can say that I really flipped for this movie.
Why isn’t Sam Rockwell the biggest name in Hollywood? Last year he blew me away with his fantastic performance in SNOW ANGELS (soon to be released). He’s always consistent and goddamn he’s funny. In Choke he plays a sex-addict whose 9-5 is being a historical reenacter. His other job is to purposefully choke in restaurants and latch onto his rescuer, often receiving cards and money every month as they soon feel responsible for him.
Oh, and he may or may not be Jesus Christ’s half-clone and/or son.
While visiting his demented mother (played wonderfully by Anjelica Huston) in a specialized Catholic hospital he meets a beautiful doctor by the name of Paige Marshall, played by the Scottish hottie Kelly Macdonald. This woman throws Rockwell’s life into a spiral. He fucks practically anything that moves, but suddenly he can’t perform with her. He’s numbed himself to the point where unattached emotionless sex is all he can do. When he starts having real feelings for this girl his world is turned upsidedown.
This movie is crazy and about as hard R as you can get. One of the critics afterwards described it as a light dark comedy, meaning it doesn’t go into any real dark dramatic places, but it has some really cynical humor.
Macdonald is good in the film, but I think her American accent handicaps her a bit, some of her dialogue sounding stilted and performed. If she had been able to keep her Scottish accent (her heart-stopping Scottish accent, I might add) I think that would have benefited the character a little.
But everybody is good in the film and most of them go beyond just good. Brad William Henke plays Rockwell’s best friend, a chronic masturbator determined to keep his hands off his junk and break his habit. Henke is a giant of a dude, but a big teddy bear. He basically acts as Rockwell’s moral center, his own Jiminy Cricket.
This is actor Clark Gregg’s directorial debut and he does a fine job of it. I’ve seen a lot of first or second-time features at the fest so far and his is the most accomplished of the batch I’ve seen. His style is loose, but smart. He plays with narration and freeze-frames, but doesn’t get decadent with them.
Gregg’s also really funny in the small role he has as the dickish boss at the Historical reenactment, always docking Rockwell’s pay whenever any modern item is on his person. The dude refuses to speak in anything but Old English and is the butt of many jokes.
Anyway, I can’t speak to how well it is adapted, but without knowing anything about the story before seeing the film, I can say that it stood out from the pack for me. I had a blast with it and I can’t wait to see it again.
I scored a four on one interview with Huston, Gregg, Rockwell and Palahniuk. I’m a little behind on posting my interviews, but hopefully I’ll get that one out by this weekend. Keep an eye peeled for it!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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Choke is still my favorite of Chuck's novels. Can't say my favorite of his work though. That title goes to GUTS. Mmmmm, peanuts.
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I met him when he visited my college a while back. I got to have dinner with him since my roommate was the one that organized his event. we watched Fight Club and then did Q&A. he was a class act the whole way, and nowhere near as weird as you'd think from his writing.and I would verbally assault anyone that claims Rockwell isn't great. and if you think, "oh, he's grea,t but his range is limited," then you never saw Box of Moonlight, and you haven't seen Snow Angles yet. the man is a chameleon.plus, Rockwell in Galaxy Quest should have been nominated for a best supporting actor oscar. and you know this.
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Wish they would do more Chuck P Flicks...
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Having read the book I never pictured Sam Rockwell in the lead role, but damn it makes perfect sense!
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big ups, Special Agent Casper!congrats on the film, if somehow you read this. see if you can slide into directing Sorkin's next script!
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After that things got repetitive.
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Here's to hoping we see a Survivor and Invisible Monster films in the near future.
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But the movie doesn't sound interesting. I'll pass.
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I plead with you...don't fuckin' die!!
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Huge fan of Chuck's work. But always scared shitless they'll fuck it up on screen. Sounds like they got ballpark...which is 100% better than most dreck that hits screens...
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I would have liked to see Jim Uhls adapt another Chuck P. book after his work on Fight Club--which I literally just got back from seeing again at the theater here in Orlando. This one has a lot to live up to.
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I think I'm the only person on earth that finds Haunted brilliant. And Rant was really good as well.
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a baby. But looks like somebody already did :(
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It'll get my cash. Rockwell is excellent, I absolutely love Welcome To Collinwood, and Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind is an underrated gem. Btw, at any point in this movie does anyone get to say, "This Bellini is starting to look like a real Kapuchnik"?
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Survivor is the cream of the crop. Loved it. I found Choke to be a little guilty of Fight Club envy, so didn't enjoy it as much. That being said, Haunted is pretty damn amazing. Reading Non-Fiction next.
Oh, and Diary! I wrote that as a screenplay a year before Diary came out. The bastard stole my idea! I haven't read it yet, but I'm willing to bet he did it better.
Even so, can't wait to see this flick. -
Sam Rockwell sounds perfect for the role! I really enjoyed the book and think it's a great choice for book-to-movie. Can't see Survivor or Invisible Monster or Lullaby as good movies though they are great books. Maybe Survivor but it's probably very difficult to adapt without making it too .. over the top.
And I think Chuck is very repetitive but when it gets old, just read something else for awhile, it's a good place to back to after a while. And I'm sure there will be a great many memorable quotes from this movie just like Fight Club. -
the nightmare machine shows Venus, btw.
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...but Choke ranks right up there with the best of his work. Can't wait for the movie, I just hope they don't fuck it up too much. It was a quick read, so I doubt there will be any room for plot omissions in the translation to film. Fingers Crossed.
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Big fan of Palahniuk and I hope that all his books will be made into movies. This review makes me happy.
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I've ever read of his is Haunted. It's also the first book I ever bought. I only have 4. what can I say, I'm not much of a reader. But the idea of some short stories seemed manageable for me. I can't wait to see some new stuff form him though. Maybe i should get his other stuff.
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red_weed, or did you write them yourself?
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Marvelous writing and very funny and insightful.
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Jan 23, 2008 7:28:44 AM CST
paula-nick [phonetics] 's second best book after survivor
by ironic_name
survivor would be hard to make into a movie.. because, well, there is a SECRET ending to the movie, that would be hard to film.
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. . . Fincher would have directed every Palahniak film adaptation.
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I wish, but I know we never will see Haunted. Survivor would be great. Lullabye too. Only one of his books I didn't like was the Stranger than Fiction book. Started off good, but then just kind of boring
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But this guy is the over-blown hipster favorite of the new millenium. I guess if you have had a partial labotomy, you can ignore the huge plot holes and obviously contrived devices strewn throughout them. Otherwise, try something lilke House of Leaves (by Mark Danielewski) to read something actually groundbreaking and not requiring you to shut down half of your brain to enjoy it...
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Should have got Vincent Gallo to play Victor.
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A guy gets his intestine or colon or some crap yanked out from his but by a pump in a swimming pool. Chuck is nuts.
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I like the one about the cpr dummy that gets constantly soiled.
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Yeah, that's my favorite of his too... But I'm not sure if Hollywood has the stomach to make a movie in which the protagonist hijacks a plane.
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Argh, I'd love to see that pandemonium on the big screen...
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i highly doubt they would ever make that movie, because of stuff like "guts" and the slow cannibalism and the flying penis. I would love to see the short story "The Box" though
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It's about a supermodel who has half of her face blown away by a shotgun, and she meets up with a transvestite and together they show real estate, but only so they can steal prescription medicine from the bathrooms. You can't make that stuff up ... well, I guess he did.
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You sure? I'm at work or I'd check the book.
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supposedly, chuck left out the "jump out of the plane and leave a recorded message providing a fake alibi, with the black box recording tender's explaining till the end" end, who would you film that.. I guess you could have two cops interpreting the recording, and then have them work it out after the credits, and show the plane flying into the bush with a small recorder next to the pilot's black box microphone.
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and they could interpret him dying in the plane, a usual suspects, "none of this happened" thing
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Sounds pretty faithful Quint. Also, why does the headline sound negative? Had me worried for a second there...
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from the book. If you haven't read it, let's just say the shit really breaks loose.
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Then either Survivor or Invisible Monsters. Have to admit the clip i watched of Choke did not instill me with confidence at all. Gotta wait for a review from someone who's read the book (no offense Quint). Admittedly it's impossible for me to read any of his books without David Fincher directing in my head.
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Gallo is a crazy right-wing turbotwat (and also, might I add, a fucking hack of epic proportions) and Sam Rockwell is talent incarnate. He's perfect for the role — though I admit, when reading, I couldn't help but think of Ed Norton (Palahniuk uses pretty much the same voice as in "Fight Club.")
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I really hope they do. I can't even imagine this film without the "rape" scene, which I hope is in there word-for-word. I've rarely laughed so hard at written word.
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Make it so.
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EXACTLY what I was thinking. It would play a bit like Lost, intermingling the events in the theater and the short stories (flashbacks). they could do "guts" without showing all the gory details. But that wouldn't be very fun. OF course , the insinuation of what was happening might be more disturbing than seeing it, which would just be gross. How would you like to be the propmaster for that? "you want a WHAT turned inside out?"
man, I can't remember some of the stories - looks like I'll have to get that one out again... -
Here's how you make survivor work:
Kevin spacey + lots of Voiceover -
Was there a "rape" scene in the movie? One of the funniest things in the book just curious if they kept it in.
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Great book, and I really, really hope the "rape" scene, with the safe word is kept in the movie. It's definitely one of the funniest scenes Palahniuk has done. Haunted would be incredible as an HBO mini-series, and I'd love to see Rant adapted in some form. Lullaby and Diary, while containing the same elegant prose, and skewed perspective and narration, were not my favorites, and I could live without seeing them adapted. Lullaby just got too damn ridiculous. Floating sex?
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NEED to see a movie of that.
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Glad I'm not the only one who feels that way about the rape scene, and that you and I both referred to it as the "rape" scene.
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Notice me!! I need a gold star. Something.
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I don't know, when I hear a name like Victor Mancini I picture someone, you know, Italian looking.
Gallo is great, Buffalo 66 proves this.
Rockwell's great too. In fact, I could see him in Survivor. He looks like he grew up in a cult a received years and years of shitty kitchen haircuts. -
I didn't even see either of your posts, just proves how important it is lol.
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I still just can't picture Gallo speaking/thinking in Palahniuk-prose. But you're right about Rockwell, he would have worked well in 'Survivor,' which will unfortunately probably never be made.
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Just shows how much Quint needs to answer us.
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enough said
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So the guy hijacks a plane. He lets the passengers go and the only one who dies(maybe) is him. I really think it's more of Hollywood's disinterest in the picture then any post 9/11 sentamentalities. Remember, Fight Club had Brad Pitt and made what, 26 mil at the BO. Sure it's a classic now but not many bothered to see it in theatres. This is most likely whats holding back adaptions of Chuck's work. Hollywood see's a fringe audience. If Choke does well that will end.
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if the joker continues into Batman 3, which I'm pretty sure was their intention . Ledger will be great, but Rockwell was my choice all along
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I think he'd be good in the role, but I really despise recastings of any kind within the same series. If I didn't hate Katie Holmes so much I'd have been be really opposed to the Gyllenhaal switch, too.
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I say, whether the character dies or not, let the Joker be Ledger's (at least in Nolan's world) and let Nolan finish the trilogy with a Dent-centric (as was planned) but also Joker-less third entry.
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i hate recasting, too. It's just that I recall an old spoiler outline of batman 2 and 3 that told of joker carrying over into 3. something like in 2, being involved in Harvey's turn to Two-face, and then being on trial or something to that effect in 3.
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Did anyone see that fucked up video of Jack Nicholson being told about Heath and responding, "I warned him.." Weird.
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the batman/ledger talkbacks are that way...(points to the Top Talkbacks bar on the right)...
Would Burton ever do a film based on a Palahniuk novel? Would it be good? -
Chuck would get back to writing books like this. His last 3 have been woefully below the standard of his previous works. Quint: I'd avoid Haunted in favor of Lullaby-- a much better read. But start with Survivor, which is by far his best book to date.
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Not his best but Rant was definitely his most ambitious book to date.
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I liked some of the side storys, but the main narrative was lacking.I would like to see someone's visual interpretation of 'Guts' though.
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I got it for Christmas and it's waiting on me to get a moment of free time (he says as he checks AICN again at work) but I'm really looking forward to it.. Meanwhile, BigTexas, it was just one Ledger post — and I've already said plenty about my hopes for "Choke."
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but who's counting?
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A sex-addict slash historical reenacter whose other job is to purposefully choke in restaurants and who may or may not be Jesus Christ’s half-clone and/or son.
Sure. That sounds plausible.
Has Palahniuk ever written a book that won't buttfuck my suspension of disbelief? His books are more fantasy than Tolkien's.
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First feature. Gregg directed the first few episodes of both the Wire and the Shield, being instrumental in the look of both shows, as , and acting in the final season of the wire. Both of those shows are better than at least half the features playing at Sundance.
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You're thinking of Clark Johnson.
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Out of the four Chuck P. books I have read, Fight Club, Survivor, Lullabye, and Choke, I liked Choke least. I did not hate it, but it was just so-so. I like Sam Rockwell a lot and hope this does well, so I can see eventually see Survivor Goddamit.
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I am retarded!
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I'm not saying he's not enjoyable and 'edgy', whatever THAT is in the horrible, horrible world of marketing. But I have a feeling that he was hand-picked by just such a besuited reptile who licked his eyeballs and thought; HERE'S an alienated man with an interest in body-horror and alienation whose terse prose style (short simple sentence structure) will go down with the average chunkety-ass US twenty-something.
Not that I'm not unhappy that a gay guy can be so patently nasty and unfabulous. Kudos to him. But no book goes anywhere without marketing and the recognition of a fruitful niche.
mmm...fruitful niche... -
The guy is a hack.
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Quint, Save yourself the disappointment and don't both with "Haunted". Unfortunately, it's Chuck's "jump the shark" book. Read "Lullaby" and "Invisible Monsters" instead.
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Somebody's watchin me......
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Wasn't Fincher tapped to direct that too? Or did I dream that? Also, DIARY would make a great flick.
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Indeed the scene you're referring to is in the movie, in all its glory it sounds like.
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...i'm not the only one who thinks this guy is WAY overblown. Again, House of Leaves is better by far.
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I enjoyed Fight Club, the movie & book, when they came out, but the more time passes, the less weight they have with me--I feel like there's a lot more suggestion or pretension of substance and depth than there is actual substance or depth. I have read a couple of his later books, and they read to me like the same thing over and over--the same jaded, ironic, pseudo-post-meta-intellectual voice, the same obnoxious artificial ticks in the writing repeated over and over, no differentiation of characters or voices, just the same calculated envelope pushing again and again. I think he has talent as a craftsman, but I wish he would use it for something other than just trying to shock or disgust people. It's not so much that he's a bad writer as it is that so many people act like he's the BEST writer who's ever walked the earth. He's not.
But I think it could be a decent movie depending on how it's filmed. I think Fight Club the movie holds up better than the book because it has so much of Fincher's visual style and great performances by Norton and Pitt. Choke's got stuff that could be pretty funny on screen if it's handled with the right touch (especially if it didn't take itself too seriously). -
I was really freaking when I heard this was going to a first time director. Then cating 40 year old Sam Rockwell as 25 year old Victor was another worry. STOP!! Befpre you all start screaming about how brilliant Sam Rockwell's work has been. I agree. I just thought a Ryan Gosling, Joseph-Gordon Levitt, Nick Stahl, or I'll say it, DiCaprio was better suited for the role. Based solely on this short review by someone who never read the book, it looks like it comes close to hitting the mark, though. This is a movie that will fall on it's ass if not done perfect. But considering the director shopped his screenplay for four years before taking an offer that left him in control of the finished product, I'd say he's passionate about the book and I hope he nails it. Chuck's books are either love it/ hate it material. It takes a different kind of mind to "get them" not smarter, not more ironic, not deeper, just different. To all those who get him, I'll see ya there!
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My gf had a creative writing class with him one time. His book about Portland is the coolest thing written on the city.
'Haunted' or 'Rant' might make a better movie but after 'Survivor' got axed post 9/11 its just nice they're adapting another one. -
Its hilarious. He tells how he got beat up over the weekend and when he went back to the office on Monday everyone went to extensive lengths not to mention how he looked in order to avoid getting involved in his life...
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Thanks for answering us, man. Glad to hear it's in there.
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But there's absolutely NO way you could adapt that into a movie.
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I'm no expert in gayness, but Clive Barker sure can write some nasty and unfabulous books too, but his creatures are a bit overdramatic when I think about it.. Nevertheless, I don't think writing styles are too dependant on wether you like more dicks than your own or not.
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Jan 24, 2008 3:43:33 AM CST
My friend was telling me about Survivor a year or so ago
by industrykiller!
And what an excellent book it was and how casting it would be tough but the first name that came to his mind was Heath Ledger. Seems odd now. Sorry, just can't get the guys death off my mind.
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Fuck, try Genet for a start. Just that gayness has gotten so lavender and suburban lately.
Have you SEEN Barker lately? Man's almost certainly on HIV meds. He has that strained and bloated steroid-y look; carved cheeks, very flushed.
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And I haven't seen Barker lately, sounds bad.
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and from that review it sounds like a pretty spot on adaptation.
someone should make Guts into a TV short...someone should really really try that! -
...all over again.
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