Tangerine (2015)

A film that was made on a shoestring budget, shot in it's entirety on 3 iPhones, whose heroes are two black transgender girls and an Armenian taxi driver: could such a film stir more than niche interest? Actually it did, it got massive love from film critics, various awards and adequate commercial success. The film is Tangerine, which I've just seen and which will be today's subject.

The story: having just been released from 29 days in jail (after taking the fall for her boyfriend/pimp Chester (James Ransone)), Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) learns from her BFF Alexandra (Mya Taylor) that Chester has been unfaithful to her with a white "fish" (woman) called Dinah (Mickey O'Hagan). Thus Sin-Dee embarks on a quest to find Chester and Dinah and exact her revenge. Both Sin-Dee and Alexandra are young black transgender women who work as prostitutes.

Then there's the story of Razmik, the Armenian taxi driver: we watch him interact with an assortment of clients, spend Xmas eve with his wife, daughter and mother-in-law and have special moments with Alexandra.

The two stories converge in an all-night donut shop, where all our heroes find themselves and have a series of confrontations which may or may not change their relationships and their lives.

My review: during the first few minutes of watching, I felt that the hype hurt the film, as I entered the experience with elevated expectations and my first impression was "good, but not as good as I expected". The uneven sound and the impenetrably coded idiom of communication of the transgender girls kept me from being fully immersed in the experience.

Eventually though, I was drawn in. The low production values didn't stop director Sean Baker from framing aesthetically interesting and narratively illuminating shots. The mostly inexperienced actors were from adequate to very good, with Mya Taylor a particular standout. The influences from auteurs such as Cassavetes, Jarmusch and Scorsese are creatively blended with the director's own original cinematic language.

Finally, you may ask, did the film have a heart? It did and it was found in the small moments: Alexandra's performance, the few bonding moments between Sin-Dee and Dinah among the catfighting, Razmik's use of delicate facial expressions and more than anything the final scene between Sin-Dee and Alexandra at the laundromat.

This is a film that won't appeal to everyone, but those who do like it, will probably like it a lot.

Grade: 8/10

Trailer: