This may be a broad statement, but movies made on a shoe string budget just have a magic element to them. "Tangerine" is no exception because it is shot entirely on an iPhone, filmed in stores that were serving actual customers, and starred two first time actresses Kitana “Kiki” Rodriguez who plays Sin-Dee and Mya Taylor who plays Alexandra.
The film begins as bombastic as its title with the best friends sitting down at a Donut Time and immediately launching into action when Alexandra reveals that Sin-Dee’s boyfriend/pimp Chester played by James Ransone ("Generation Kill," "Ken Park," "Sinister"), has been cheating on her while she has been in jail for the last month. “Real fish?!” One major thing about the film is that if you’re not up on your LGBTQ lingo a lot of the jokes are gonna fly right over your head. It’s hard to tell how much is scripted and how much is improvised, because the shade these girls throw is so authentic.
"Tangerine" may at face value be the story of a trans prostitute looking to settle a score with her scorned lover, but as the film goes more in depth into who all of the characters are, not just the starlets, it says much more about the world we live in. Sin-Dee’s story does in fact focus on her quest to find Chester and his mistress Dinah, but Alexandra’s entire arc is about a Christmas performance she is putting on at a club later that night.
There are a few scenes in which we witness Alexandra with clients. One who refuses to pay her for her services so they get into a fight. The film portrays this as comical, but watching it will make you subconsciously realize that that is a very real thing many trans sex workers face on a daily basis. The other client is a middle aged Armenian man named Razmik (Karren Karagulian) who has an intense affection for Sin-Dee despite being married with a child. His mother in law is quite ruthless in this film, his story is also one that places a spotlight on the lives of closeted men.
Cinematography is extremely interesting in this film because it is completely shot on an iPhone. The director Sean Baker whose previous project "Starlet," a film about a young porn stars’ friendship with an elderly woman starring Dree Hemingway (yes, she’s an actual Hemingway) was also a hit in the indie world. "Tangerine" is appropriately titled not just for the bright orange hues that are laced throughout the film, but also for describing the fast-paced almost unbelievable things that happen to the characters in their 24-hour day. Sin-Dee gets out of jail, tracks down Dinah, busts open a whorehouse hotel room, literally drags Dinah to Alexandra’s set (no one shows up for this despite Alex handing out hundreds of flyers), and finds Chester.
The end of the film begins to get all too real as multiple truths come out. Razmik the Armenian taxi driver is busted by his wife’s mother, Sin-Dee and Chester got engaged before she went to jail for holding his drugs, Dinah and Chester slept together multiple times, and the biggest shocker, Alexandra and Chester have also slept together. At this point Sin-Dee is destroyed and takes off to think about things. A car full of drunk guys pull up, taunt her, and then throw a cup of urine at her. She is hysterical when Alexandra finds her, and who then takes her to a nearby bathroom and cleans her up. This is one of the most tender moments in the film and mirrors an earlier scene in which they are in a bathroom right before Alex goes on stage and Sin-Dee helps her fix her makeup. In this scene Alexandra takes off her wig, and places it on Sin-Dee’s head. An extremely sweet sign of solidarity and the friendship they share.
People may laud the film for its portrayal of the Trans community and that’s valid in a sense. What many don’t realize is that although the film is genuinely hilarious, the activities they participate in are a reality for many trans people. Sean Baker, Kitana “Kiki” Rodriguez, and Mya Taylor made one of the year’s most unique and endearing comedies and I hope to see many more projects from the talented three.
