It’s Christmas Eve in Hollywood and newly-released-from-prison transsexual prostitute Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is spending the pre-holiday maliciously tracking down the skank her fella boned while she was away. Sin-Dee is a chain smoker, can’t actually utter a sentence without cursing, and who knows what she’ll do to Dinah (Mickey O’Hagan), the poor hooker Chester (James Ransone) abused in her absence? Nevertheless, the camera is gonna follow Hurricane Sin-Dee and the wake it leaves behind this holiday season. My guess is Tangerine isn’t bound to replace It’s a Wonderful Life as the world’s most treasured Christmas film anytime soon.
It takes about 30 seconds of screen time for fellow streetwalker Alexandra (Mya Taylor) to spill the beans about Chester’s unfaithfulness. I don’t think it takes much for either of these gals to spill pretty much anything. These Chatty Charlies, especially Sin-Dee, seem limited secret-wise only by when somebody else is allowed to talk. Once Sin-Dee swallows this piece of information, well, let’s just say she probably isn’t the world’s best poker player.
It’s unclear what’s most upsetting Sin-Dee: the general unfaithfulness, the fact that Chester couldn’t wait out her 30-day jail sentence, how every odd street denizen of Hollywood seems to know something about this or the fact that the other woman in question doesn’t have a penis. What is clear is that Sin-Dee is pissed. And the dialogue makes no bones about it. I’d say roughly 80% of the (English) sentences in Tangerine contain at least one swear or a derogatory term of some sort. Five minutes in, I started counting the word, “bitch,” which had appeared with alarming frequency from the opening bell, but I gave that up ten minutes later as the curse of choice had changed. It was very distracting.
I want to make this very clear right now – I didn’t like our protagonist. Not because she’s black, transsexual or a prostitute, not even because she has the mouth of sailor with Tourette Syndrome. I didn’t like her because she’s a beast. Oh, she finds the other woman all right. Using the only technique she seems to understand, Sin-Dee bullies her way into a prostitution motel room so seedy I wanted to wash my eyeballs. Then Sin-Dee kidnaps the crackwhore in question. I don’t think there’s another way of putting it. While I completely respect the LGBTQ desire on feminine pronouns, she was born with masculine muscularity, which means in a wrestling match between Sin-Dee and Dinah, it’s not really a contest. So now we have an unstable, pissed off trainwreck transsexual not just attacking El Lay on her own, but taking a hostage with her.
Critics? Sundancers? Seriously, why did you like this film? Was it the Armenian comic relief? The family man cabbie (Karren Karagulian) who spends his days soliciting sex from ladyboys? That’s the good stuff? Actually, to be fair, I found one amusing moment when Razmik turns livid upon discovering his trick is actually
full woman. But, and I ask this as one critic to another – do you want to see any of these characters again? I sure don’t.
I’ll give it up for Tangerine on the count that film rarely explores the point-of-view of the transsexual prostitute; OTOH, if most transsexual prostitutes are like these, film has pretty good reason to ignore them. The very few touching shares between the players feel like coming up for air after spending minutes at a time under water. *Phew* a break! Wait, that’s it?! The parade of Ladyhulk Swears the Blues stops for five seconds and I’m supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy because you straightened her mascara?
Mya is the one (1) mildly likable character in this cornucopia of seedy – and even she squanders our collective warmth before this thing ends. Rrrrr. As I say, Tangerine, you get points for showing a world I don’t see, but I can’t possibly give you the nod of approval.
FrogBlog Notes: Tangerine is being lauded for its camerawork. The film was shot with three iPhone 5s. Yes, this is a HOLY SHIT! moment. The expense of making a Sundance quality film has just been reduced exponentially. Think of all the things you don’t have to do when all you need is an iPhone to shoot a movie – it’s not just equipment and film, it’s personnel and permits and responsibility. Wrapping up isn’t a production; it’s pressing a button and putting the entire studio into your pocket. Awesome.
The drawback? Well, this means that writing is more important than ever. For your story to compete, it has to stand out; you can’t just film anything on an iPhone and expect Cannes to bite, especially now that everybody can do it. So, for God Sakes, let the next Sin-Dee be at least a Sin-Dee-plus, huh?
Film trannies are seldom equal
And our heroine is surely unique, well
Tangerine II ?
Knock knock, Orange who?
Orange you glad there won’t be a sequel?
Rated R, 88 Minutes
D: Sean Baker
W: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch
Genre: That whole world of transsexual prostitution
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Amateur cinematographers
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: People already put off by the Supreme Court’s recent equality rulings
