Tangerine, dir. Sean Baker

Wiz RECOMMENDS Tangerine

I've heard about Tangerine for nearly a decade now.

But there's a few things that get mentioned about the film whenever I hear about it: it's about transsexual sex workers and it was shot on three iPhone 5s'.

But unless you pay real close attention (and I mean REAL CLOSE ATTENTION) you won't be able to tell. Tangerine takes the seedy, grimy L.A. setting and gives it a vivid, striking color grading.

There are scenes with neon, sunlight and even fluorescent lighting that have a vibrancy that contrasts with the ugliness of the area it's shot in.

In fact, it feels like the grimier the areas, the more colorful the setting feels. Pay special attention to scenes with back alleys and hotel rooms to see some of the more beautifully shot scenes in the muckiness.

As for the story, Sean Baker strikes a relatively good balance in keeping things humorous while also showing the humanity and compassion of the main character Sin-Dee.

The simple plot, Sin-Dee wants to confront her pimp boyfriend Chester when she finds out he's cheating on him with a woman, shows the character in both her comedically outrageous ways while also showing her deeper, sensitive side later on.

This is helped further by Kitana Kiki Rogriduez' performance as Sin-Dee. For her first (and as of right now only) performance, she strikes a perfect tone on the character that makes you laugh at her while also feeling for her, especially at the end of the film.

But I have one sizable gripe for the film: it should have cut some of the characters or time spent on those characters.

Alexandria, the person that Sin-Dee finds out what Chester did, could have easily been a character that you only see when it involves Sin-Dee on screen because she really didn't add much more.

But the one character that could have easily been cut was Razmik, a cab driver who's attracted to tranny prostitutes, played by Karren Karagulian.

Honestly, whether it's his family drama or him trying to pick up a prostitute for a quickie, it really just felt like a complete distraction from what the main plot is.

On top of that, with such a sensitive portrayal of Alexandria and Sin-Dee, it felt odd to treat this character who is attracted to these characters as a comedic relief.

It leaves this weird juxtaposition of trying to humanize Sin-Dee and Alexandria while making comedy of the fact that Razmik is attracted to them. For this oddity alone, this character could have been severely reduced or cut entirely.

It honestly leaves me conflicted with what exactly the filmmaker wants you to feel at the end of the film.

That leaves me with giving it a smaller recommendation than I would have liked to give.

The sensitive and funny portrayal of the lives of these prostitutes are well done and makes you empathize with their problems and the film is beautifully shot in its minimalist, shaky style.

It's just sad that a film feels like it could be trimmed more to hone in its story even in its very slight 90 minute runtime.