Tangerine

Plot synopsis:
Transgender sex worker Sin-Dee Rella, who has just finished a 28-day prison sentence, meets her friend Alexandra, another trans sex worker, at a donut shop in Hollywood on Christmas Eve. Alexandra accidentally reveals that Sin-Dee's boyfriend and pimp Chester has been cheating on her with a cisgender woman. Sin-Dee storms out to search the neighborhood for Chester and the woman.
Alexandra hands out flyers for her musical performance that evening, and argues with a client who refuses to pay; their argument is broken up by the police. Razmik, an Armenian cab driver, picks up a prostitute, but ejects her from his cab when he discovers she is not transgender. He meets Alexandra and fellates her in a car wash, then goes home to eat Christmas dinner with his family. Alexandra goes to the bar for her performance, but no customers have arrived.
Sin-Dee finds the woman she is looking for, Dinah, at a brothel in a motel. She hauls her onto a bus to find Chester. Dinah taunts her for believing she is Chester's only girlfriend. Sin-Dee realizes she is late for Alexandra's performance and drags Dinah there. The two smoke crystal meth in the bar bathroom and Sin-Dee applies Dinah's make-up. Alexandra performs to a mostly empty bar.
Razmik leaves his family to attend Alexandra's performance, saying he has to work, but discovers he is too late and searches for Sin-Dee. Suspicious, his mother-in-law asks another Armenian cab driver to take her to him.
Sin-Dee, Alexandra and Dinah go to the donut shop, where Sin-Dee confronts Chester. He insists Dinah means nothing to him. Razmik arrives, followed by his mother-in-law; she calls Razmik's wife, who arrives with their infant daughter. An argument escalates until the shop owner calls the police. Razmik and his family go back to their apartment. Dinah walks back to the brothel, but is told there is no room for her.
Outside the donut shop, Chester tells Sin-Dee that he also slept with Alexandra. Hurt, Sin-Dee leaves and tries to pick up some clients; they throw urine in her face and drive away shouting transphobic slurs. Alexandra takes Sin-Dee to a laundromat to clean her clothes and wig, and gives her her own wig to wear while they wait.

Tags: revenge, violence

Review:
Furthermore, maybe because of the unique film techniques, it feels very real, like you were just tagging along for the duration.The story takes place over the course of about 12 hours, following the lives of two transgender prostitutes on Christmas Eve. Sin-dee has just been released from jail, and her best friend Alexandra lets slip that her boyfriend/pimp picked up with another women while she was away.
Co-written with Chris Bergoch and filmed entirely on iPhone 5s' (with cinematic apps), this gritty, no-frills film spotlights real problems of real people on a real day  on the real streets of Hollywood and Los Angeles.Personally, I haven't seen many (ok, any) films that focus on two transgender prostitutes (both, persons of color).
This is not the glitzy/celebrity side of Hollywood, but rather the underbelly of a melting pot city where the paths of transgender streetwalkers and Armenian cab drivers intersect.Sin-Dee (Kiki Kitana Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor) are opposite personality types, but clearly good friends as they chat while splitting a donut in the opening scene.
The story with taxi driver Razmik (Karren Karagulian) shows a family man drawn like a magnet to the world of Sin-Dee and Alexandra  he even finds a reason to skip out on Christmas Eve dinner with his family.
any variety of possible descriptions come to mind.But no matter how one tries to frame this uniquely crafted work, despite its very low production budget (this entire movie was filmed with iPhones?), it's still surprisingly entertaining.I could try to encapsulate the drama (and yes, drama, as in on the street, way over the edge drama) between the two main characters, and the meandering ill fated adventures that sprout up along the way, but actually, better that you simply watch and experience for yourself.No spoilers, not even a hint .
but what I will suggest here, the time spent to watch this will not be wasted.Kudos to a very clever bit of street drama compressed into a simple but engaging journey into and through a collection of lives that are all too real out in certain sections of town, which in this case happens to be West Hollywood..
As unconventional in content as it is in the way it's shot, this is one comedy that defies everything in its path.The story of Tangerine unfolds on Christmas Eve and follows two trans sex workers who are also best friends.
The film also breaks tradition in the casting department by employing two transgender actresses in the given roles & both of them deliver fantastic performances, with Mya Taylor playing her character in a balanced manner while Kitana Kiki Rodrigues going full crazy as Sin-Dee.On an overall scale, Tangerine is an inventive, distinctive & hysterical piece of indie cinema that allows its audience to settle down in the first act after which it instantly changes gears, gets more wild & vibrant with every passing minute, goes absolutely bonkers in its final act when all its different threads combine together to form a single whole, and finally concludes with a touching ode to friendship.
I know Tangerine is a first of sorts: a film about a certain kind of trans life and with trans actors, but I cannot for the life of me understand what makes it a good movie, never mind one of the best.
'TANGERINE': Four Stars (Out of Five)Critically acclaimed indie flick; about a transgender prostitute, searching for her boyfriend (a pimp who cheated on her), in Hollywood, on Christmas Eve. The movie was directed by Sean S.
The movie definitely seems like you're watching real people, doing real things; in a part of life, I'm not familiar with (which makes it all the more fascinating).
I don't for one moment believe this film to be a true reflection of life in the USA but if it is then I'm glad I don't live there.Admittedly I didn't see the last half - I had well and truly had enough by the half way mark.It's rubbish like this that is dragging the movie industry down and to try and kid yourself that the movie has something is only ensuring that we will continue to have this type nonsense thrust upon us..
And not substance in the form of a statement or message, but substance that is the richness of the characters' daily lives themselves, the richness found in the often unexplored areas of the world we live in.I wouldn't expect everyone to love the film because we're not conditioned to watch movies like this.
Perhaps it was the use of hand-held cameras, constantly moving along the sidewalks, and the mean streets of Los Angeles used as a backdrop, not blockaded off for the filming but with real people and real street activity used as background for the actors.But let's focus on the essentials, not just the voyeuristic thrill of glimpsing into a world the average person knows nothing of.
If the noteworthy Oscar push for Tangerine's two transgender leads to be recognized by the Academy was the sole point of originality for the film, it'd still be a pretty worthy discussion piece, but likely not a significant one after next year's Oscars pass (let's not kid, the nominations for these respective actresses are still a longshot).
Co-writer/director Sean Baker respects his subjects enough to allow them room to breathe in a film that is so free and unrestricted, its setting might as well be the continental United States rather than the streets of Hollywood.The film follows a slew of lonely, misunderstood, and even some contemptible and wretched characters on Christmas Eve, particularly two transgender female prostitutes, Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor).
Sin-Dee has just finished serving a nearly month-long jail sentence only to learn from Alexandra that her pimp Chester (James Ransone, the commendable character actor from Sinister 2 I praised so heavily) has been cheating on her with a straight female named Dinah (Mickey O'Hagan).
Upon hearing such news, Sin-Dee storms out of Donut Time to find Chester, while Alexandra prepares for her one-woman show in West Hollywood, and Razmik (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian cab driver, earns money from fares all around the greater Los Angeles area to raise money for both women.Tangerine is such a liberating film, unchained and unshackled from the confines of gender, sexual, and racial prejudice by just being so free-form and accepting of what its characters can do and say.
Even the way Baker chooses to shoot Tangerine should make this evident; notice how Baker's camera - which is really a phone, being that he used three different iPhone 5s smartphones with external microphones to shoot the film due to a strained budget - does more than capture and showcase Sin-Dee and Alexandra, but really follows their every move.
well...Let's just say that it's a pretty terrible representation for transgenders because they are some of the most obnoxious and egocentric characters I've seen in a movie (the lead sin- dee especially).Anyway, I guess the acting is borderline decent as they all come across as what they are portraying, except for James Ransone (who I usually like) as the pimp who tries to speak ghetto-lingo but ends up sounding like someones dad trying to be hip.The story is very point a to point b simple, the visuals are alright and the soundtrack is good, but yeah overall I didn't like it.If you want to watch a movie about a transgender in the hood, may I suggest GUN HILL ROAD (2011) that's actually good, and a far better representation of transgenders in my opinion..
Especially from Mya Taylor who fully succeeds in making her character come over as a real-life person with strengths and flaws rather than a caricature or stereotype.Altogether, a very good film, very different to 'Starlet' but has many of what made that film as impressive as it was.
It is stylised, shaky, fires its plot like a machine gun, but most of all, is INCREDIBLY REAL.Unlike the Danish Girl, which so many have hailed as the land mark in transgenders being represented in cinema (i am not one of those people), Tangerine gets up close and very deep into the lives of LA transgender sex workers.
This film tells the story of two transgender prostitutes going around Los Angeles, and an Armenian taxi driver on Christmas Eve. Their day becomes more eventful by the minute.I had no idea what "Tangerine" is about, and I was in for a surprise.
I'm not a big fan of 'scripted reality' shows and this is basically an SR show made into a feature length film with a few added gimmicks thrown in to get attention.The film starts abruptly enough, and at this point I was thinking 'ok well judging by the reviews the film obviously has great characterisation or something' but no it just becomes a mess of bitching, swearing, walking about, "cool" music interludes and the protagonists being generally unpleasant to anyone and everyone they meet.Throw in the fact it's all shot on iPhone - which conveniently excuses the cast for their atrocious acting - and let's not forget the hype generated by the transgender / transsexual angle - and you've got a film which isn't going away in a hurry.It's great to see trans women - in fact anyone from an LGBT subgroup for that matter - represented on-screen by people from that actual community - but just imagine how much better it would be if they tried to actually act!I like the fact this film gives a voice and some screen time to otherwise marginalised actors and actresses - but it's done so amateurishly it's impossible to feel anything for any of the characters because they are depicted as either unlikable or just unrealistic human beings.
And in the character of the outwardly conventional cab driver who's smitten with the "girls" and the world they come from, the movie suggests that there are many out there who force themselves into categories that don't completely fit them and admire the kind of freedom in which those who don't conform live, even as they would likely condemn them for their behavior.And I would be remiss if I didn't also mention as part of this review that the movie is at times uproariously funny.Grade: A+.
The strange angles & loud dubstep music really make it difficult to establish a connection to a character that is not very sympathetic in the first place.However when the camera follows her friend Alexandra or Razmik, it's essentially a different, far superior film, which really encapsulates the experience of these marginalised groups of people and shows us their struggles in a sympathetic way (which is the director's specialty if his masterpiece The Florida Project is any indicator).Liked: -some characters
A cleverly structured screenplay that covers a 12-hour period during Christmas eve 2014 in the life of two trannie working girls, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez as Sin-Dee and Mya Taylor as Alexandra, whose banter right from the get-go makes sure the viewer gets the gist of who they are.
And there's notable cameos from Clu Gulager as a taxi passenger and Scott Krinsky (TV series Chuck) who is Alexandra's potential john.Though the use of iPhone 5 gives it a grittiness that makes it feel way too real, the use of Steadicam reduced the shaky feel that people would usually get from cellphone footage helped create that needed awareness of the unreality of the movie watching experience by giving an indie film a professional feel to it.The delicacy in handling the issues facing people who work the oldest profession face and the showing vantage point of transvestites was sucg masterstroke.
The plot sets on the Christmas Eve and revolves around two young black trans-prostitutes, Sin-Dee (Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Taylor), the former is newly released from jail for covering up her pimp-boyfriend Chester (Ransone), only to discover from the latter that Chester has been hooked up with a white tart Dinah (O'Hagan) during her one-month long prison time.
Eventually they meet again in the night but things will go haywire, their friendship must endure the test of an ugly truth.In Baker's book, Sin-Dee and Alexandra constitute a duet of love and dream, two things we cherish the most, but become so unattainable for their line-of-business, yet, even in the dimmest corner, there are anomalies like these two, on the surface, Sin-Dee is a crude spitfire, unrealistically naive, and unpleasantly aggressive, whereas Alexandra is less emotional, more elusive, yet, her manly side can effortlessly roar with lighter when she engages in a relentless grapple with a stingy client; but deep inside, they are two ordinary souls trying to fight for their lives, neither dishearten nor delusional, life may be hard for them, but their friendship bonds them together, a touching ending where both take off their wigs and reveal their biological appearance, that moment, a heartfelt understanding transcends all their exterior forms, no matter how singular they are, just as two tender human beings, they deserve our compassion and respect, it is a masterstroke rising from this gimmicky fare.A less-enticing sub-plot is about a trans-addicted taxi driver Razmik (Karagulian), an Armenian immigrant, a closeted-family man, who is obsessed with Sin-Dee and his secret will be disclosed by his hell-bent mother-in-law Ashken (Tumanian) on the Christmas Eve in the Donut Time.
This movie is basically good drama; as the film fest hype suggests, pic follows the day of a cross-dressing sex worker leaving a short prison term utterly p*ssed off that her boyfriend/pimp has cheated on her - eventually it becomes apparent that he's a loser and she can't see that his insincere support of her was self serving and deceptive anyway.Much of the movie is shot on location, with a modified iPhone 5, although some cast members and the films creative team have previous experience in professional film and television.
As expected for consumer level cameras, low light conditions produce some grain artifacts.The film has original content though, and explores enough dramatic possibilities and unusual situations to be considered a great movie in some sense; at heart the film hinges on the main characters romantic betrayal, and a subplot involving an Armenian cab driver with a family who has a paraphilia for paying a black trans sex worker to give him oral sex whilst driving through the blind, soapy mess of a American car wash somewhere in a seedy area of Hollywood on Christmas eve.Some people on IMDb seem to suggest that the film is either 'totally overrated' or 'against women'.
Shot for $100,000 (not that expensive) for an Indy, the story line is simple to follow: on Christmas eve, a Black trans sex worker out of 28 days in jail, hears a rumor that her squeeze Chester is having it on with a fish (argot for a real woman, a vagina).
Another issue is I wish we got to know more about Sin-Dee as a character like we know a little bit about her insecurities and longing through the subtle acting but how come there are characters who we see for only one scene get moments were they just talk about whatever is going on in their head.My expectations for Tangerine were definitely met and I dug this movie a lot.
Director Sean Baker's indie film "Tangerine" is not for the closed-minded tasters, but it's gritty, and its authentic look on street- life prostitution has plenty of deep scenes.
Karaguilan was brilliant as Razmik; and Mickey O' Hagan was stupendous as Dinah, the prostitute being chased by Sin-Dee. So even though it's not the feel good movie of the year, there is still plenty of cinematic flavor in "Tangerine".
Just released from prison on the eve of Christmas, Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) soon learns of her pimp Chester's (James Ransone) infidelities with local "fish" Dinah (Mickey O'Hagan), who quickly ignites the streets with her friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor) in a hunt for answers.
Did I happen to mention that Sin-Dee just got out of jail and is a trans working girl while her boyfriend is a pimp – that's just the beginning for this wild ride.The beauty of Tangerine is its simplicity, utilizing a plot that has been in existence since the days of Ancient Greece.
At its core, Tangerine is a journey film, true all the specifics may mask that fact, but Sin-Dee and the medley of characters are all on a journey of discovery that culminates to a fantastic and satisfying conclusion.In a way, director Sean Baker is a marketing mastermind.
Ultimately, it is a film about friendship between Alexandra and Sin-Dee, how people who we can count on in the worst of times are all that matter.
This is a day in the life type of film where you're spending time with two transgender prostitutes who are best friends, one is preparing to performance in her own show and the other is fresh out of jail looking for the woman she believes is cheating with her boyfriend/pimp.
Beyond the basic marketing ploys of "shot on iPhone" and "gritty and raw documentary style film about transgender working girls" there's not much to this Sundance darling in terms of actual story and character development.It's a "found footage" type of movie using the gimmicks of jump cuts (where continuity doesn't matter) and "shaky cam" - where you shouldn't eat or drink beforehand.
Basically Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is a transgender prostitute who has just been released from a 28-day prison sentence, it is Christmas Eve and she meets with her fellow transgender prostitute and friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor) in a donut shop in Hollywood.
The setting is Hollywood and his protagonists are trans-gender prostitutes (or should I say sex-workers?) Sin-dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor).The opening scene (shot in a donut shop) grabs you right away as just out of jail Sin-dee threatens to find her pimp/boyfriend Chester, who has been cheating on her with a non-transgender woman, Dinah, another prostitute.