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Choking Man

Play trailer Poster for Choking Man Released Nov 9, 2007 1h 24m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
52% Tomatometer 33 Reviews 37% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Ecuadorian immigrant Jorge (Octavio Gómez Berrios) makes a meager living scrubbing dishes in a Queens, N.Y. diner. Constantly harassed by the restaurant's overbearing manager, Jerry (Aaron Paul), Jorge yearns for romance with the new waitress, Amy (Eugenia Yuan). But he's hampered by his severe shyness and the fact that Jerry's also interested in her. While working his life away and dying on the inside, Jorge escapes to a series of vividly imagined fantasy worlds.
Choking Man

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Quirky animated interludes fail to lift this dull US immigrant indie out of its introverted torpid state.

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Critics Reviews

View All (33) Critics Reviews
Hank Sartin Time Out Rated: 3/5 Nov 18, 2011 Full Review Anton Bitel Little White Lies For all its concern with social and mental disintegration, Choking Man is a strangely tender film. Nov 16, 2008 Full Review Empire Magazine Despite efforts to impart a little tension and human interest, the tale is told with such discretion, it's almost anonymous. Rated: 2/5 Nov 14, 2008 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Low-key indie. Rated: B Jul 9, 2009 Full Review Trevor Johnston Film4 There's enough charm and enterprise here to win over viewers who have the patience to stick by the tongue-tied Jorge. An intriguing change of direction for pop-video pioneer Barron, though next time he might like to cut loose that bit more. Rated: 3/5 Nov 14, 2008 Full Review Tim Evans Sky Cinema It's all a bit anonymous despite engaging performances, especially from Yuan as the sunny optimist, but the character of Jorge is so cripplingly introverted that there's nothing to latch on to. Rated: 2/5 Nov 14, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (34) audience reviews
Audience Member Eugenia Yuan is great as always. The rest of the story is too dull. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member By no means is this the worst film that I have ever seen; it is, however, on a long list of terrible films that I have seen. Every character in this film suffers from a, really bad & persistent, form of stupidity. To describe Jorge, the main character & clearly the worst character in the film, as morbidly shy is a morbidly understated description of the character. He obviously suffers from some sort of delusional paranoia, immensely afraid of everything, the shyness being the one aspect of his personality that is the most apparent. For Jorge to be the main character in this film the writer(s) and/or director(s) of this film must have suffered from some form of brain-death. I half expected the movie to introduce a subplot about a case worker that got Jorge the job at the diner, through some sort of a state-funded program that tries to make retards self-sufficient by getting them jobs. At the same time, I was hoping that his `roommate` would do him in; sort of a suicide by proxy... The only thing worth a damn in the entire film is the character Amy. While every character in the film suffers, at the very least, from some form of stupidity, she's the only really likable character. I borrowed it from my local library and I did so bc I had heard a couple of good things about one of the production companies that worked on the film; Ghost Robot has only done one other movie that I have seen and it, Cropsey, was, truly, an excellent film. I was hoping that the intelligence that went into that film would have been instilled into this one as well. The dvd extra's may actually end up being the best thing about this film. Overall, a waste of my time. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Liked the music, acting of female lead - LOVED, and the stories, but still didn't quite get the story line thread... Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member pas mal de bonnes idees pour ce petit film drôle et tendre. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Slow to unfold and not much payoff for sticking with it, but some really unique and interesting animation. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Eugenia's great, given the script. Aaron Paul was interesting, but what a gaping black hole - though I understand the Ecuadorean guy's shyness centers the film, his character becomes dead weight toward the middle, such that his heroic save seems less so at the end. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Choking Man

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Cast & Crew

10 Items or Less 64% 65% 10 Items or Less Watchlist Explicit Ills 54% 39% Explicit Ills Watchlist Fierce People 24% 57% Fierce People Watchlist Private Property 76% 65% Private Property Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Ecuadorian immigrant Jorge (Octavio Gómez Berrios) makes a meager living scrubbing dishes in a Queens, N.Y. diner. Constantly harassed by the restaurant's overbearing manager, Jerry (Aaron Paul), Jorge yearns for romance with the new waitress, Amy (Eugenia Yuan). But he's hampered by his severe shyness and the fact that Jerry's also interested in her. While working his life away and dying on the inside, Jorge escapes to a series of vividly imagined fantasy worlds.
Director
Steve Barron
Producer
Steve Barron, Zachary Mortensen, Joshua Zeman
Screenwriter
Steve Barron
Distributor
International Film Circuit [us]
Production Co
Ghost Robot
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Nov 9, 2007, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 20, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$4.2K
Runtime
1h 24m