Film Reviews
Choking Man (2007)
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.