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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Choking Man - The Unknowns Make This Movie, November 14, 2008
Choking Man is a very good, albeit strange, movie. Those who are into thoughtful, creative independent movies that push the envelope need look no further. Granted, this type of movie is not for everyone. The main character, Jorge, is often living between fantasy and reality. Not all of his thoughts are kosher, and his inability to interact with others provides the main driver for most of the scenes. Yet if you can suspend judgment, there is so much to learn from this movie.
Along with very well written characters, promising young actors, a great supporting cast of veteran actors, this film also makes excellent use of visuals combining excellent photography and interesting animation sequences. In short, this movie really has an interesting blend presented in an imaginative way.
In the way of plot, there is not too much happening through many of the scenes. Our main character is a dishwasher in a diner, and most of what we see is happening in his mind. But his crush on waitress Amy, played by a bubbly and excellent Eugenia Yuan, conflicts with his shyness. Not only does he have to contend with aggressive competition from guys at the diner, he also has to deal with all the demons in his head.
New York City is also a central character in the movie. Travelling between Jamaica Queens and Harlem provides for some interesting characters. Anybody who's ever taken the subways between those neighborhoods knows what a trek it is. The sights and sounds of the subway and the grittiness of the people comes through. You can see Jorge avoiding interacting with others as much as possible, whether people are mean or nice.
The title of the movie comes from the info poster in the diner which shows a *choking man* and how to administer the Heimlich maneuver. The faceless man also becomes a character in Jorge's mind, blending with a sort of menacing alter-ego.
While the supporting cast is all good, it's a shame that big-name actors get top billing with it is these young unknowns who really carry the movie. Yes, Mandy Patinkin is here, and he is good as usual. But to be honest, his part barely makes use of his range and really is one that could have been filled by a character actor. Some of the Diner drama, such as the feuding waitresses and cooks, adds some atmosphere but at times seems to detract from the central story. It seems like somebody tried to squeeze a traditional story in there to hedge their bets against Jorge's imagination being too far out for even independent film audiences.
Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. I've watched it more than 4 times over the past few months and each time I find something more to appreciate in it. Once again, this is not for the typical movie night. But if you want to watch something really subtle and creative, there's few new films that can top this.
Enjoy.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
introverted immigrant, October 31, 2008
Jorge is a young and morbidly shy immigrant from Ecuador. By day he washes dishes at the Olympic diner in Queens, New York. At midnight he returns to his grimy apartment and a weird roommate. Jorge pulls his hooded sweatshirt over his forehead so that we barely see his face; he knows a little English but almost never speaks. At work an obnoxious cook named Jerry bullies and hectors him. But there is one bright spot for Jorge -- Amy, a bubbly waitress from China. She defends Jorge, but also enjoys flirting with Jerry. That's unfortunte, because Jorge had been enjoying her attention, shining his shoes, getting a haircut, and even buying her a gift. The isolation of Jorge's immigrant experience, and the dysfunction at his job, are exacerbated by his pathological introversion so that he is, in an emotional sense, choking. Even the church and Christian faith, which is repeatedly invoked, can't help him. The film ends with two surprise twists in the plot. Mainly in English; some Spanish with subtitles.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Confounded, July 4, 2009
I don't even think I could tell you my interpretation.
I could tell you my feelings are in play. At the end of the movie there is... for me... sadness. Something connected with this movie. I guess I am going to call it quits with trying to figure it out.
I'm in a teaching life, working with immigrants. There, in the differences in people, in the cultural exchanges,there are things I often don't get, catch. So this movie was like a lens on some aspect of the totality of my job as I conference, teach, interact on a yard, go in and out of work... of seeing glimpses, of wondering and knowing others minds only just as a little bit in a puzzle that has lost most of the pieces...and finding confusion a state of functioning reality. Oh let me start over. I just finished watching this movie. Choking Man is a wonderful title. It speaks to a actual event in the movie and alludes to the character you come to see as the enigmatic center and his life here. This is an impressionistic piece.
The movie told the story in a diner centered on interactions that never come completely to some linear clarity. And at the center is a painfully shy immigrant who slides in an out of what I assumed was schizophrenia, maybe induced by the stress of trying to integrate all of this pressure for survival, needs of a person his age for love, the shyness, the city, what he left. I just don't know.But my interpretation was he is struggling with his mind as alien as he is alien to this new world. It's so powerful in that regard that I find it a mesmerizing movie. I remained utterly lost in a maze much of the time.
Why I'm struggling is that I'm not entirely clear on this character. He was allowed to remain only partially revealed. And his thoughts and feelings are so visceral. Read the other reviews and the blurbs, watch, see where you are then. I want to reveal the ending to say something but I can't except to say he brought forward real people I've known. He was remarkably constructed.
So I'll tell you...I've recently had a complex dream, turned 50, been working on some thinking about teaching. I've worked almost exclusively in over 25 years with immigrant experience. This carries to me something of that. At a time when just bits, pieces, impressions, aren't adding up. It gets something of the closeness to physical, rough, sweat work of coming to our country.. It has the feeling, lighting, the sound of it...somehow in the shyness of this boy, his mind being revealed,he is glimpsed, but in how hard you are trying to read it from your experiences you realize something as I am doing of late, about how different things are perceived. It has a confusion, it has triggered for me the feeling of sadness I have in my work, profound remembrance of certain people, it seems to make me want to try...harder....to just cut myself a break....but to work aware. Watching. Hoping at least in moments we can see the suffering and walk in the shoes of one another. Try to reach out.
This isn't a film I can explain so I'm going to stop. I thought it was genius.
There aren't ten people I'd recommend it to, because I wouldn't trust it to too many. But to those you will understand and take from it how much each one of us is worth.
It was one I just felt. I really enjoyed the experience.
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