By Dylan Jones
Tangerine is filmed entirely on an iPhone 5 camera, and follows two transgender sex workers through the streets of LA as they toss off taxi drivers, smoke tina and throw donuts at each other.
YES, it’s every bit as amazing as it sounds. This film, is fucking amazing. Sorry, wait, this isn’t a Facebook status, this is a review in a magazine. Let’s try again. This film is a phenomenal portrait of an unseen world, and not only that, a powerful statement on today’s cultural zeitgeist.
While obviously involving transgender issues, the goal of the movie isn’t to make any particular point: it’s a dizzy, debauched, drug-fuelled MESS. In the best possible way.
The iPhone filming wasn’t meant to be a gimmick or product placement, it was genuinely done due to budget constraints. They couldn’t get hold of a camera, basically. MAJOR props to ingenious director Sean Baker for just opening his camera app and getting on with it. And now it’s become a massive cult hit, created the Academy Awards’ first transgender campaign, and been selected for dozens of film festivals. Which is all so hilariously audacious.
As it turns out, the usage of phone cameras is great, because it unwittingly gives the film an insane sense of realism. Watching it is LIKE watching your friends’ videos they upload to Facebook or whatever. Suddenly you’re there with Sin-Dee and Alexandra, screeching in the back of a cab or asking strangers for a lighter.
That’s the other thing: tiny details like that are so endearing, so everyday. It’s a film about transgender prostitutes, but it’s been done in a way that anyone could identify with them. Which is so great and so important.
It’s also down to two amazing turns from actors Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor. Quite apart from marking a turning point in cinema as transgender actors in transgender roles, they’re just great! Instantly likeable, instantly hilarious, instantly emotive. Mya’s more introspective and sensitive, Alexandra is genuinely Oscar-worthy. Special mention too to Mickey O’Hagan, who’s long-suffering Armenian taxi driver, Dinah, provides a great contrast with the handbag-swinging, drink-swilling madness of the rest of the movie.
Tangerine was made in 2015, but it’s so 2017. It couldn’t be more cool, crazy, sexy and self-assured. If the hot girl you were too scared to talk to at school were a movie, she’d be Tangerine.
• Tangerine is showing at Hackney Picturehouse on Wednesday 17th February.
