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Two transgender prostitutes hit the warpath in Hollywood on Christmas Eve to find a boyfriend who has cheated on one of them. Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is the one who’s been betrayed, dragging her friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor) along with her, even though Alexandra has an important singing gig later the same night. Their story is intercut with another featuring an Armenian cab driver (Karren Karagulian) who cheats on his wife with trans prostitutes. Things come to a cataclysmic showdown at Donut Time, where Sin-Dee forcefully drags ‘the other woman’ (Mickey O’Hagan) before the man they love (James Ransone), and where the cab driver has a simultaneous confrontation with his wife and mother-in-law.
Writer/director Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Anora) made headlines by shooting this slice-of-life street drama on a modified iPhone, but you never think about technology or the budgetary constraints while watching Tangerine. Baker quickly absorbs the audience in the microcosmic world of the film. We’re voyeurs into a very specific sub-culture of insecure characters looking for human connection the best way they know how. The plotting is purposefully loose — maybe too loose for more mainstream film fans. The characters are in control here, not the plot. The naturalistic performances from the amateur cast members and the hand-held photography lend Tangerine a compelling feeling of authenticity. Despite their life choices, penchant for drama, and frequent pettiness, we start to feel for these characters and their quest for genuine relationships in a world that marginalizes them in almost every way. It’s not didactic in its messaging either. Baker and his crew simply invite you to spend a day with these characters and conclude what you will.
Tangerine is a noble sort of filmmaking, building bridges between a marginalized community and the rest of the world by reminding the audience about our common bonds. These Hollywood trans sex workers may seem like aliens to us at first, and I imagine some in the audience may never be able to keep from judging them for their life choices. But by the end of the film, I sympathized with their problems, saw a little of myself in them, and marveled at their resilience.
Co-written by Chris Bergoch. Look for Clu Gulager (The Last Picture Show, Return of the Living Dead) as one of the cab driver’s passengers.