Review of Tangerine (2015) by Joshua S — 28 Mar 2016

The number of films centering on transgender people is quite few, but as the twenty-first century advances, I suspect the subject will enter a phase of normalcy. Until then Hollywood will continue to tiptoe around the issue, occasionally releasing decent and well-intentioned, but ultimately safe pieces such as The Danish Girl.

Leave it to clever independent filmmaking to push the edge. I present to you Tangerine, a low-key dramedy set in the rougher parts of modern L.A. with two African-American transgender prostitutes as our main characters.

(Yeah a studio would never greenlight this kind of film.) Tangerine is near plotless, but still has a light driving narrative in the manner of a Richard Linklater film. One of our leads finds out upon being released from jail that her pimp/boyfriend has cheated on her with a white female.

She then sets out to extract revenge and answers. Meanwhile her long-suffering friend has to prevent violence and kidnapping while trying to perform a show on Christmas Eve. The film was shot entirely on a couple of iPhones with camera adapters on location in L.

A. with many of the "characters" on screen being real people who live and work there. Our two protagonists (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor) are also played by actual transgender women, one of whom was a former sex worker.

Obviously, authenticity is a plus, but the manner in which Tangerine was filmed and released shows the endless possibilities of independent filmmaking. There is a healthy dose of dark humor to be had, which helps a lot with some of the serious themes.

These are sad, lonely, and doomed characters and many of the longer and more somber scenes convey the simple tragedy, while not becoming overbearing. It was a neat, slice-of-life picture and it will stick in my mind for some time.