Tangerine lights
up and takes off in the first scene and doesn’t stop to take more than one
breath until right before the end credits. It’s set on a stretch of West
Hollywood populated with fast food, car washes, bus stops, strip malls, and prostitutes,
where we find our leads, two transwomen. Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and
Alexandra (Mya Taylor) are best friends and sex workers. While they share a
donut to celebrate Christmas Eve, Sin-Dee learns her boyfriend/pimp (James
Ransone) cheated on her while she was briefly imprisoned. This will not stand.
So off she runs in pursuit of her man and the woman (Mickey O’Hagan) who slept
with him. Sin-Dee is intent on revenge, while her friend follows along trying
to talk her down. Writer-director Sean Baker whips up a whirlwind of activity,
loud and hilarious, in a movie that’s humane and alive, crackling with
tremendous energy and vitality.
It’s everything independent cinema should be, inventive filmmaking bursting with
casual diversity and representing a point of view rarely explored. It’s
perfectly cast with charismatic and compelling fresh faces, and expertly
written in bursts of overlapping colloquial dialogue and staccato humor, the
plot a raucous tightly plotted crescendo. Best of all, it’s gorgeously
directed, with sumptuous widescreen digital photography. You’d never know it was captured on
an iPhone, shaming the bland digital look of so many big budget films. Every
shot is framed for forceful impact. Baker, with co-cinematographer Radium Cheung
(who works on one of TV’s best looking shows, The Americans) creates a rich color palate – dripping in vibrant
yellows and reds, bathed in golden caramel oranges – and beautiful texture,
imbued with a constant charge of movement, following closely behind the
boisterous proceedings.
There are swooping angles and emphatic movement, and a
booming soundtrack (of hip-hop, classical, and carols), a sense of forward
momentum and riotous entertainment to go with the sharply observed character
and place. At the center of this loud, hard-charging comedy is a tender
friendship. Sin-Dee and Alexandra are two of the most extraordinary characters
in recent memory. They’re tough and hilarious, full of big dreams and fully
aware of dangers and prejudices. They’re capable and vulnerable, serious and
goofy, and they genuinely enjoy their time together, even though the course of
events here tests their loyalty and support. They have their differences. Taylor
is a great solid center around which Rodriguez can spin. It’s a good contrast. Taylor is a magnetic draw of quiet charisma, an anchor for the intensity around
her. Rodriguez is more of clever charisma bomb, tearing through every scene
with a quick wit, perfect timing, and a sharp argumentative edge.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen, eager to see what
they’d do and say next. Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch give them great
scenarios. Separately or together they spend time fighting on a bus, barging
into a hotel room, taking drugs, creatively using a car wash for privacy,
arguing with a would-be john, and stopping at a bar to sing Christmas carols. But
it’s the acting that breathes such captivating humanity into their every
moment. What could’ve been a flip crime comedy – like every other
post-Tarantino 90’s indie – is instead soulful and involving excitement connecting
characters who feel completely real and alive. This extends to supporting roles,
including a subplot involving an Armenian cab driver (Karren Kartagulian) whose
involvement with the main throughline goes in some unexpected directions before
reaching an ambiguous, surprising, and kind conclusion.
For a movie provocative in many ways – in vulgarity, frank
sexuality, even its loudness – it has this core of kindness. Baker has
compassion for every character, and creates a non-judgmental energy that allows
them their identity without feeling a need to comment upon it. In an
exuberantly dirty fast-paced character comedy, there’s a feeling of
matter-of-fact lived experience that’s refreshing. Without dipping into cliché,
it’s a message of tolerance. The film is aware of problems involving transphobia
and issues of class and prejudice, but never becomes a hectoring or moralizing
movie. It’s too open-minded and humane, and too focused on its high-energy,
fast-tempo comedy to preach. Baker’s a smart enough filmmaker, and his cast is
relaxed enough, to imbed Tangerine’s ideas
in outrageously entertaining energy. We follow our leads over the course of one
crazy day, overlapping arguments and conflicts building to a dizzying emotional
climax, then falling into a hard-fought quiet. As hilarious as it is heartfelt,
this is a great argument for telling stories from diverse perspectives.
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