Steve Barron’s darkly melancholic, low-budget drama is worlds away from the blockbuster swagger of his earlier Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Comment
11/14/08
Choking Man (2007)
47
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:15
Rotten:17
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: Quirky animated interludes fail to lift this dull US immigrant indie out of its introverted torpid state.
Runtime: 84 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:14-11-2008
Synopsis: Set in New York's Jamaica, Queens, CHOKING MAN illustrates the neighborhood's rich diversity. Ecuadorian immigrant Jorge (Octavio Gómez Berríos) washes dishes at a local diner, where he connects... [More]
Starring: Octavio Gómez Berríos, Eugenia Yuan, Aaron Paul, Mandy Patinkin
Director: Steve Barron
Reviews for Choking Man
Top CriticFor all its concern with social and mental disintegration, Choking Man is a strangely tender film.
11/16/08
It’s not a bad effort at all — and certainly a whole class above Ninja Turtles.
11/14/08
The creepy and original power of the film is the schizophrenic other who taunts him when he finally crawls home to his maggoty bedsit. Weird.
11/14/08
Top CriticImpressively directed drama with strong performances and a subtle script, though the tilt into magical realism doesn't quite work.
11/14/08
Modest, quirky, well acted by an unknown cast.
11/14/08
The film marries digicam naturalism to animated fantasy to oddsome but fascinating effect, rendering magical the inner world of the shy and almost muted Jorge. It's an unusual but valuable addition to the cinema of contemporary migration.
11/14/08
Top CriticThere'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.
11/14/08
Top CriticClick to read the article
11/14/08
Top CriticDespite efforts to impart a little tension and human interest, the tale is told with such discretion, it’s almost anonymous.
11/14/08
Top CriticAfter more than an hour in Jorge’s relentlessly miserable company the voice in The Sneak’s head was saying “leave now”.
11/14/08
Top CriticIt's meant to be a portrait of a man "choked" by his own alienation, but Jorge's shyness comes over as dullness, and after all the sensitive maundering the conclusion is a terrible letdown.
11/14/08
They don't add up to much; and he's just too passive to make us care even slightly about whether he gets the girl or ends up taking a meat-cleaver to his rival.
11/14/08
Some US indie films are so torpid, so pointless and so incredibly whingey that you want to reach into the screen and slap the face of everyone involved. This film, by writer-director Steve Barron, is one such.
11/14/08
Top CriticIt'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.
11/14/08
There’s a low-key New York drama lurking somewhere, but Barron can’t seem to decide if he’s making that or something more flashy.
11/14/08
Top CriticI can think of no earthly reason why this well-made and thoroughly charming New York indie drama from writer-director Steve Barron has been languishing in limbo for two years.
11/08/07
Low-key indie.
07/09/09
rises above the mundane with the inclusion of some gorgeous animated interludes and just a touch of Latin American-style magical realism.
08/14/08
The film looks so good it could play without sound.
11/08/07
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