Click to read the article
Comment
11/14/08
Choking Man (2007)
47
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
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.
Theatrical Release:Nov 9, 2007 Limited
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
Get This Movie
Rent DVD
Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.
Buy DVD
Reviews for Choking Man
After more than an hour in Jorge’s relentlessly miserable company the voice in The Sneak’s head was saying “leave now”.
11/14/08
Steve Barron’s darkly melancholic, low-budget drama is worlds away from the blockbuster swagger of his earlier Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
11/14/08
Despite efforts to impart a little tension and human interest, the tale is told with such discretion, it’s almost anonymous.
11/14/08
I 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
Top Critic... wants to take us into Jorge's mind, though a less interesting and pleasant place would be hard to imagine.
11/08/07
It'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
For all its concern with social and mental disintegration, Choking Man is a strangely tender film.
11/16/08
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
[Barron] has made Jorge so deeply withdrawn that you are unable to really feel anything for him other than a blind pity, which is decidedly not the stuff of compelling dramaturgy.
11/09/07
Low-key indie.
07/09/09
It’s not a bad effort at all — and certainly a whole class above Ninja Turtles.
11/14/08
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
If there is finally a point to the film it is that we're all human piñatas and that putting sprinkles in your fish soup may not be tasty, but it makes one's upchuck look pretty. I think.
11/04/07
The movie suffocates under the weight of too many wrong choices.
11/09/07
For all its enticing dramatic hooks, Choking Man has a fairly unrewarding conclusion.
11/09/07
Overburdened with disorienting stylistic devices and contrived plot elements that reduce the psychological depth to which it aspires.
11/28/07
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
The film looks so good it could play without sound.
11/08/07
Top CriticClick to read the article
11/13/08
RT On Current TV
What’s Hot On RT
Fresh Links
Featured
MSN's Year in Review 
Take a look at MSN's choices for the Top 10 films of 2009.
Moviefone's Year End Poll
What were your favorites? Least favorites? The funniest and scariest? Moviefone wants to know!
Tarantino's Characters
Hollywood.com explores why QT's characters resonate so well with audiences.
Top 10 Movies of 2009
TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.
Top 20 of the Decade
Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter
Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!
IGN RSS Feeds