Tangerine

Plot

Sin-Dee is a recently released from jail transgender prostitute, who on Christmas Eve is searching the streets of LA for her boyfriend and pimp, Chester following the revelation that he has a new girlfriend. On her journey to find him, one of her former clients, taxi driver Razmik is searching for her.

Alexandra is her best friend, who is eagerly looking forward to her first singing performance at one of their local bars.

Direction

Sean Baker directs this independent arthouse, and would go onto direct this years highly recommended Anora. Considering this was directed mostly on smart phones, it is done exceptionally well. There is some good techniques like dolly work, panning, zooming and framed shots that cuts off faces.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

You would need a very progressive and open mind going into this, as there are some intense themes involved. Firstly, as Sin-Dee and Alexandra are transgendered prostitutes, prostitution is one of the overall themes of the film.

There is also homosexuality as Razmik is clearly closeted gay – as he searches for Cin-Dee and even goes as far as rejecting a prostitute without ‘it’. Chester is also in a relationship with Cin-Dee – but has other girlfriends on the side (his employees).

There is a quick and fast paced dialogue – which is quite funny at times.

The Armenian culture is also front and center – Razmik’s mother in law goes on search for him as she suspects he is cheating – and the conversations around Christmas.

I found there might have needed some knowledge of the geography of the city of LA would have assisted, as the setting of LA was almost a character in itself.

Score/Soundtrack

There is a good score included, that is quite timeless and classical at times (which I am guessing was either bought at low cost or free). Some of the backing music also includes classical music, R&B, and techno.

Overall

As said earlier, this one is really not for people who don’t have an open mind or are able to watch films like this. I really quite enjoyed it, and the 87m runtime is needed for the themes throughout.

The characters are all immensely likeable, and the MVP goes to Mya Taylor as Alexandra – especially for her performance near the end of the film.

4/5