Best movies like Choking Man
From one of the most influential music video directors of all time, comes an extraordinary new film
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Choking Man Starring Octavio Gómez Berríos, Eugenia Yuan, Aaron Paul, Mandy Patinkin, and more. If you liked Choking Man then you may also like: X+Y, Virgin, What Happened Was..., The Narrows, Not Waving but Drowning and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
The social anxiety of a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher working in a Queens diner provides the psychological engine that powers this blend of drama and magical realism.
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What Happened Was...
Jackie and Michael are coworkers at a large law firm. They decide to meet at Jackie's for dinner one night.
The Narrows
A 19 year old Brooklyn boy who is torn between two worlds when his photography portfolio wins him a partial scholarship to NYU. He must figure out how to balance his Italian neighborhood roots with the expansive, sophisticated world on the other side of the East River. Based on Tim McLoughlin's novel "Heart of the Old Country".
Not Waving but Drowning
Not Waving But Drowning is a chronological look at growing up, formed from two different stories. The two sets of friends represent the American dilemma between what you have known and what you hope to know; the tear between longing for the past and the desire to explore.
Only the Lonely
Danny Muldoon, a Chicago policeman, still lives with his overbearing mother Rose. He meets and falls in love with Theresa Luna , whose father owns the local funeral parlour. Naturally, his mother objects to the relationship, and Danny and Theresa must either overcome her objections or give up the romance.
Open
OPEN is a hallucinogenic journey through gender, identity, the body, love and how those can be shared by two people. The film consists of interlocking stories lines- the first about two trans women in a pandrogynous relationship in which they simultaneously receive plastic surgery treatments to mirror each other's features to ideally form into a single person. The second story follows a trans man and his new (cisgender) boyfriend as they run away from home and push against their own personal boundaries while dealing with his unexpected pregnancy.
Jersey Girl
A working girl from New Jersey looks for love with a fast-lane Manhattan salesman from Queens.
The Beautiful Country
After reuniting with his mother in Ho Chi Minh City, a family tragedy causes Binh to flee from Viet Nam to America. Landing in New York, Binh begins a road trip to Texas, where his American father is said to live.
The Boys Next Door
Jack Palmer is a social worker whose job has taken precedence over his personal life. Mainly, his job is to help four mentally challenged men live regular lives in a home. They consist of: Norman, who works at a donut shop and has a thing for keys; Barry, who thinks he is a golf pro and doesn't communicate well with his father; Arnold, who is into all things Russian and has a habit of spending money; and Lucien, who is into Spider Man and must testify before the state senate. Jack wants to help them, but he also thinks it is time to move on with his life. The hard part is trying to say goodbye to the guys he cares about.
Mom, Dad and Her
Sydney is a troubled teen heading for trouble. After being caught shoplifting and a case of alcohol poisoning, Sydney's desperate single mother sends her off to the country to live with her father, Ben, and his new pregnant wife, Emma. Sydney misses her boyfriend, her city life and doesn't get on with her dad or stepmom. Slowly she starts to settle in as she makes friends with Jess, a local girl whose mother died of cancer. Sydney makes a couple of mistakes but after her grandfather's death the extended family start to heal.
Acne
At the age of 13, Rafael Bregman has already lost his virginity, but has never kissed a girl. With his pimple-riddled face, his dysfunctional family, and a lowered self-esteem, getting this much anticipated first kiss proves trickier than expected. It's now time for Rafa to build up some self confidence and attract the attention of his class mate, Nicole...
Moonlight and Valentino
A young widow still grieving over the death of her husband finds herself being comforted by a local housepainter.
The Glass Menagerie
A son longs to escape from his stifling home, where his genteel mother worries about the future prospects of his lame, shy sister.
Permanent Record
David Sinclair seems to have everything going for him: he's smart, musically talented, and very successful. To top off his senior year in high school, his band is trying to get a recording session. Therefore, David's suicide leaves everyone, especially his best friend and bandmate, Chris, with a lot of questions.
Somers Town
Two teenagers, both newcomers to London, forge an unlikely friendship over the course of a hot summer. Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) is a runaway from Nottingham; Marek (Piotr Jagiello) lives in the district of Somers Town, between King's Cross and Euston stations, where his dad is working on a new rail link.
Heavy
Victor is a cook who works in a greasy bar/restaurant owned by his mother, Dolly. It's just the two of them, a waitress named Delores, and a heavy drinking regular, Leo. But things change when Callie, a beautiful college drop-out, shows up as a new waitress and steals Victor's heart. But Victor is too shy to do anything about it, and too self-consciously overweight to dream of winning Callie away.
The Italian Key
A romantic fairy tale about a 19-year old orphan girl who, as her sole inheritance, gets an antique key that unlocks both an old Italian villa and the secrets of her family history.
Late Autumn
Anna learns in prison that her mother has passed away in Seattle. Prison officials grants Anna a three day furlough to attend her mother's funeral. Anna embarks on a long trip to Seattle. Hoon is a Korean immigrant who works as a gigolo. Hoon is now on the run from a wealthy client's furious husband. These two seemingly lost souls are about to share three memorable days together.
Seducing Maarya
Vijay Chatterjee is a lonely widower and a successful restaurateur in Montreal. His thoroughly Westernized son Ashish works at his father's eatery but is more interested in the rock band that he started with his friend Michael. One day, Vijay meets the elegant, strikingly beautiful Maarya, who recently emigrated from Calcutta. He immediately hires her for his restaurant and introduces her to Ashish, thinking that she would make the perfect wife. Though Maarya soon realizes that the young Chatterjee has a closer relationship to Michael than she originally thought, she plays along, keeping the secret from Ashish's dad so that she can remain in the country. When the elder Chatterjee starts to pursue Maarya and her jealous knife-wielding brother arrives on the scene, this volatile situation turns downright explosive.
Don't Let Me Drown
In a post-September 11th world overflowing with fear and hate, two Latino teens discover that sometimes the only thing that can keep them from drowning is love.
I Like It Like That
Lisette and husband Chino face marital difficulties. She is fed up with the kids, while he has job troubles. His mother Rosaria hates Lisette and the neighborhood tramp has designs on Chino. Things get even worse when Chino goes to jail and Lisette gets a good job uptown. Can this marriage be saved?
Southern Belles
Bell and Belle want to break out of their trailer park lives and get up and out to the "Big City" of Atlanta. Just when they think they are on their way to getting a nest egg Bell falls for a handsome police officer named Rhett Butler.
Strays
Rick is frustrated by the repetitious grind of one-night stands and aimless hustling. Whilst looking for more to his life he meets Heather, a neighbour. Rick takes the opportunity to escape his boring life style with her, but soon finds that his volatile behaviour threatens to finish their relationship before it even really begins.
Ricochet River
High school seniors Wade (Jason James Richter) and Lorna (Kate Hudson) have spent all their lives in the small logging town of Calamus Grove, a conservative place where change comes slowly. Jesse Howl (Douglas Spain), a teenager of Native American ancestry, has just moved to Calamus Grove, and soon finds he doesn't fit in this close-knit community. Wade and Lorna go out of their way to befriend Jesse, and soon find that they're also regarded as outcasts among their peers. Eager to get away from the narrow minds which are stifling them, the three friends grab a car and take off for a summer road trip that turns out to be full of lessons in life and love.
Goin' Down the Road
Two friends travel from Nova Scotia to Toronto in hope of finding a better life.
Sweet Jane
Jane, an HIV-positive heroin addict, meets Tony, a young AIDS victim with no family, and the two form a bond.
The Last Sin Eater
In seeking her own redemption from the one man of whom she is most afraid, 10-year-old Cadi Forbes discovers a secret sin haunting her community of Welsh immigrants in 1850s Appalachia.
Green Dragon
A tale about Vietnamese refugees sent to an orientation camp on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base in California, 'Green Dragon' focuses on a young boy and his sister. Set in 1975, the film chronicles the stories told to the two children by other refugees in the camp and of Tai Tran, who dares to introduce himself to Sergeant Jim Lance. In developing a relationship with Lance, Tran is able to improve
My Childhood
The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.
A Cooler Climate
Iris is broke after her divorce and takes a job working as a housekeeper for a wealthy woman named Paula. When Paula and her husband separate, an unlikely friendship blossoms between the women.
Everyday People
The closing of a local restaurant concerns a number of employees who've dedicated their lives to the eatery
The Blue Diner
Blue Diner is a story of a Puerto Rican mother Meche (Miriam Colon) and daughter Elena (Lisa Vidal) living together in Boston and difficulties they face when Elena mysteriously loses her ability to speak Spanish, he first language. As Elena's language disappears, he boyfriend's (Jose Yenque) painting inexplicably appears at the museum where her mother Meche works.
Sweet Little Lies
Bess, a lonely, trailer park teen, steals a car and makes a desperate journey from Kansas to Vegas in search of a father she never knew. Her trip takes her deep into the seedy underbelly of America where she encounters an array of lost-souls, deadbeats and con men, and learns that family can be found in the oddest of places.
Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York
Sheila Levine - an innovative, bright, but painfully introverted individual - arrives in New York City to take an apartment with a partygoing roommate. There, she experiences love and heartache in equal measure.
Dr. Cabbie
An unemployed doctor turned cab driver becomes a local hero when he converts his taxi into a mobile clinic.
Bullet Boy
Ricky is just out of a young offenders institute, heading home to Hackney and determined to go straight. Instead, he heads straight for trouble when he becomes involved in a street confrontation, siding with his best friend Wisdom against a local rude boy. The trouble escalates into a series of tit-for-tat incidents that threaten to spiral out of control. Ricky's 12-year-old brother Curtis, hero-worships Ricky, though he appears smart enough to know he doesn't want to follow his example. Yet, despite the stern warnings from his mother and support from her friends in the community, might Ricky's bad boy allure be too attractive for Curtis to resist?
Rufus
Rufus is a shy and lonely boy determined to make a new start. Sure he has some quirks. So what if he likes the taste of blood? It's not like he's addicted. When a cunning vampire hunter slips into town searching for the fountain of youth, Rufus fears his darkest secret is about to be revealed.
Jess + Moss
Jess, age 18, and Moss, age 12 are second cousins in the dark-fire tobacco fields of rural Western Kentucky. Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends their own age, they only have each other. Over the course of a summer they venture on a journey exploring deep secrets and hopes of a future while being confronted with fears of isolation, abandonment and an unknown tomorrow.
The Fat Boy Chronicles
Jimmy always gets teased by the football team for being overweight. As a school assignment he writes about it in his journal, but soon he finds out that he's not the only kid in school with problems.
Snow in August
When a young boy witnesses a crime, he turns to a rabbi, and the ancient mysteries of the Kaballah, for help.
Toe to Toe
Out on the lacrosse pitch, wealthy but troubled Jesse and poor but driven Tosha form an easy and deep bond, but their relationship is threatened once they enter the hallways of an elite prep school they attend in Washington, D.C. There, they must work to overcome racial and other tensions in their classmates, and in themselves, if they hope to keep their friendship alive.
Out of Season
Hip lesbian Micki Silva leaves her fast-paced urban lifestyle for Cape May, New Jersey, to help her ailing uncle Charlie. At the local diner, run by Shelley, Micki meets Charlie's friend Roberta. Roberta likes her house, working at the diner, and numerous aspects of the small-town way of life that bore Micki, but opposites attract. Drawn together by the dying Charlie, the two women develop a complex relationship.
Emoticon
Elena Gallenti is an anthropology graduate student struggling to complete her thesis on 'modern means of communication.' All that changes when she meets her new boyfriend's teenage kids, who are going through their own journeys of self-discovery. All of them learn to navigate love and intimacy in the digital age.
Gypo
Gypo is the story of a working class family in Margate, Kent, a town where immigrants have become the focus of most of the public's discontent. The film tells the story of the a couple of weeks in this family's life, beginning when a young Czech girl, Tash, comes to visit. The film is made in the Dogme95 tradition, so no costumes, no lighting, no props or sets, which gives the film a gritty texture appropriate to the story.
X+Y
A socially awkward teenage math prodigy finds new confidence and new friendships when he lands a spot on the British squad at the International Mathematics Olympiad.