Limited Release: The Lucky Ones, Choke, Forever Strong, Humboldt County

The Lucky Ones
This film follows the events of an impromptu road trip where three soldiers returning from the Iraq War share a ride across the country. Michael Pena is a hardened sergeant on a one-month leave to see his family after suffering a troubling injury, Tim Robbins is an old reservist who just wants to get to his wife in St. Louis, and Rachel McAdams is a private trying to return a guitar to the family of the soldier who owned it. Home isn’t exactly the idyllic place they remember after all that time at war, and the aftermath is something they’ll all have to learn to deal with together. They are the lucky ones, after all.

Choke
Sam Rockwell should be enough to sell anybody on his movies, but for some reason, he’s not yet as famous as his talent mandates that he eventually will be. The fact that he’s playing a colonial theme-park attendant/con artist/sex addict who falls hard for the great Kelly MacDonald, who’s playing the doctor for his ailing mother (Anjelica Huston), should be a highly compelling premise as well. The kicker is that it’s based on a Chuck Palahniuk’s novel - and you may remember this guy as the man who wrote Fight Club. Now you have no excuse.

Forever Strong
Sean Faris of Never Back Down stars as a troubled rugby player sentenced to serving time, who is given a shot at freedom by a rugby coach (Gary Cole) if he plays and wins against his estranged father’s (Neal McDonough) team.

Humboldt County
Fairuza Balk plays the enigmatic mystery woman named Bogart who changes the life of a straight-laced med student Peter Hadley (Jeremy Strong) by stranding him in the weed capital of California with her bohemian parents (Brad Dourif, Frances Conroy) when she heads back to the city.