Good for the gag reflex

While life presents us all with many opportunities for failure, no film I’ve seen recently embodies this idea quite like The International Sign for Choking, which screens tomorrow evening in downtown Portland.

Choking is presented as part of the Northwest Film Center’s Northwest Tracking series, which showcases filmmakers across the Pacific Northwest, from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.

While not all of the films take place in the region, the films in the series represent Northwest aesthetics and themes, according to the center’s website.

Directed by Olympia’s Zach Weintraub, Choking takes place in Buenos Aires and follows a young photographer/director (played by Weintraub) on assignment.

Weintraub’s photographer seeks to rekindle an old love while sabotaging a potential relationship with another girl, Anna (Sophia Takal), before it even starts.

While the themes and subject matter could potentially make for an engrossing film, Choking fails to deliver because of its lack of sympathy and empathy and the lack of depth in the characters’ relationships.

The cinematography is impressive, relying heavily on off-center camera angles, blurs and splashes of color within the walls of the boarding house in which much of the film takes place.

However good these techniques can be in moderation, Choking uses them to the point of saturation, almost boring the viewer with repetition in an attempt to fit the images on the screen with that purported Pacific-Northwest-hipster mentality.

Used selectively and sparingly, these techniques make for an interesting and compelling film experience. Choking just overdoes it.

Weintraub’s and Takal’s performances are both convincing and create a natural on-screen presence that is both enjoyable and believable. But while the viewer may be entranced with the skill of the performers, the characters themselves are far from likable.

Weintraub presents his character with an air of self-importance that is oh-so-prevalent in the Pacific Northwest. Though the film takes place in Buenos Aires, the Pacific Northwest feel does not escape the viewer, especially in the development of the film’s main characters.

However unlikeable the characters in the film are, the writing is a noteworthy achievement. Never once in the film does anything involving the dialogue or writing feel affected, false or otherwise overdone; these characters might be cloying, but they feel real.

Conversation between the characters, while irritating at times, feels natural, like a conversation that one would have if thrusted into the context of the film. At times, the audience may find themselves feeling an overwhelming urge to grab certain characters by the throat and give them a good shake, but maybe that’s the point.

Though Weintraub is a Pacific Northwest filmmaker and his style shows it, he does a fair job of giving the audience insight into the environment of Buenos Aires. Sunspots, bleached sidewalks, dilapidated cityscapes and combinations of vibrant and muted colors all provide the viewer with a taste of the culture.

In several scenes, Weintraub shares experiences with locals and converses with them about life, love, happiness and the like. The dialogue between them is what made this film watchable.

The overarching story, though, was difficult to pick out. There would be long periods of silence that seemed intended to garner a viewer’s reflection and sympathy for a particular character.

Instead, I found myself irritated and working too hard to wade through a story that was buried deeply in pretension. In one scene, in particular, Weintraub throws an adult fit over forgetting his hat at someone’s house.

Keep in mind, this is a typical, dollar-store beanie that carried little to no sentimental value. Pacific Northwest-ness? I’ve heard similar freak-outs while walking down Alberta on a Saturday night.

Also, the lead’s self-defeating nature is rather difficult to watch. He is on assignment and drudges around, sabotaging himself and being pressured by his boss to find subjects for his work.

While creative endeavors can indeed be troubling, in this case it seems like our trusty photographer just brought everything on himself.

The film is certainly flawed, but if support for local artists is a driving force behind your choice in films, go see it.

If pure cinematic enjoyment is what you’re after, this is a film that has an innate ability to irritate the viewer to no end.