The International Sign For Choking | AFI Fest 2012 Review

Heimlech Gesture: Weintraub’s Noxious Nostalgia an Exercise in Distraction

Angst and privilege intersect in The International Sign For Choking, a tale of aimless abandon directed by Zach Weintraub. Seemingly an exercise in plumbing the artistic depths of melancholy nostalgia, as the director freely admits the film is basically a play-by-play of his own experiences, there’s a definite sense of realism drenching the proceedings. However, just as the main character discovers his folly in revisiting a time and place he doesn’t remember quite accurately, so does the film feel like a hollow exercise of observation.

Josh (Zach Weintraub) is an American photographer/filmmaker on assignment with some sort of producer or publication, hired to come up with an idea in Buenos Aires, a location he has hyper romanticized memories of while having spent time there as a student. We begin to learn little snippets of information about Josh and his motivations, though the exact nature of what he was hired to do remains unclear, only that, whatever it is, he’s neglecting to do it. Soon, it’s evident that the ulterior motive for visiting Buenos Aires is to reconnect with an old girlfriend, Martina. Only it seems Martina has moved out of the city, causing concern with the producers back home, who chat with Josh via Skype offscreen, unsure why he was so dead set on Buenos Aires only to leave the city.

While living in group housing, Josh is introduced to Anna (Sophia Takal), a fellow American he gets to know the more they run into each other. Anna’s Spanish skills are considerably less than Josh’s, and the two begin to spend more time together and eventually become intimate. Josh seems to accept whatever distraction is thrown his way, but when the financiers back home start to sound threatening, Josh makes an awkward choice at choosing to document a music band he me through Anna. Only, the lead singer of the band, Roger, was romantically involved with her before Josh pulled her attentions away, so Josh has to steal Roger’s contact information from Anna, which causes a muted confrontation of sorts for her. It’s clear that she’s hurt by Josh’s careless actions, but he can’t seem to break out of his drifting haze to do more than vaguely go through the motions.

For a film that rarely strays from showing us its two lead characters in close proximity, it has a curious habit of distancing us considerably from Josh, who is nearly always obstructed by something. When it’s not the camera itself, objects will often obfuscate him completely. There’s a quietly mesmerizing visual scheme to The International Sign For Choking that makes it more mesmerizing than what’s actually going on.

Our characters are related to us through small tics and little actions that subtlety tell us about them, and Weintraub makes things especially uncomfortable for us with the lack of verbal communication when events sour for the cockeyed intimacy that develops between Josh and Anna. Writer, director, and producer Sophia Takal once again proves herself an innately naturalistic performer and if there’s any empathy the film manages to evoke, it’s for her character. However, the film, which is really about a guy stuck in a rut who’s making a half assed attempt to find an interesting subject to create something artistic about, while, at the same time, making a half assed attempt to rekindle past relationships, really never manages to elevate itself beyond a grand exercise in the stagnancy of distraction. There’s nothing innately at stake for anyone on screen here, and despite some lightly bruised hearts along the way, it’s hard not be aligned with Josh’s producers in the film, irritatingly aware that we’re not getting what we thought we paid for.

Reviewed on November 2nd at the 2012 AFI Film Festival – YOUNG AMERICANS Programme.
80 Min