Director: Sean Baker
Screenplay: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch
Starring: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, Karren Karagulian, Mickey O’Hagan, Alla Tumanian, James Ransone
Country: USA
Running Time: 88 min
Year: 2015
BBFC Certificate: 15
Acclaimed writer-director Sean Baker tends to make films that are vivid slices of life. He’s often drawn to locations as inspiration for projects and on one of his bike rides around L.A., he came across an intersection that was home to a Donut Time cafe. With a group of transgender sex workers operating in the area, it seemed like an interesting place to explore. So Baker and his co-screenwriter Chris Bergoch scouted it out and spoke to people there in search of characters and stories.
They met Mya Taylor around the Donut Time area and she was very enthusiastic about the project, so agreed to help them out. She told them her story and those of her friends and neighbours. She brought Kitana Kiki Rodriguez over to meet them too. When Baker saw the pair together he knew he had his leads.
Baker and Bergoch wrote a ‘scriptment’ (part script, part treatment), then gave that to the girls to give their own input and eventual approval. This helped the film have a true transgender voice behind it. The script was fleshed out a bit further, then Baker went out to try to get backing for the production. The Duplass brothers helped support the film, setting Sean up with a pair of producers.
The budget was very small and one of the money-saving decisions the team made was to shoot on an iPhone, rather than film or high-end digital cameras.
I’ll get into more detail on this further in my review but, basically, the iPhone photography helped the film get a lot of attention on the festival circuit and gave a boost to the career of Baker, who was on a gradual upward trajectory, after receiving acclaim for his previous couple of features.
Baker’s films are starting to get impressive boutique Blu-ray treatments, with Take Out entering the Criterion Collection recently (I reviewed it here). Now Second Sight are getting involved, with a lovingly compiled Limited Edition release of Tangerine. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the couple of Baker films I’ve seen so jumped at the chance to review this.
Tangerine has a fairly simple story. Transgender sex worker Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) has just got out of prison and meets her best friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor), also trans and working the streets, on Christmas Eve. When Alexandra accidentally tells Sin-Dee that her boyfriend Chester (James Ransone) has been cheating on her, Sin-Dee goes on the rampage.
As the disgruntled woman hunts down the culprit (who we eventually discover is Dinah, played by Mickey O’Hagan), we bounce between Sin-Dee’s story, Alexandra’s attempts to talk her friends and neighbours into going to her show that evening, and the trials and tribulations of Armenian taxi driver Razmik (Karren Karagulian).
Razmik works in the same area as the girls and we see the variety of clientele he picks up. We later learn he has a fondness for trans women, particularly Sin-Dee. When he discovers she’ll be at Alexandra’s show later, he sneaks out of his family’s Christmas Eve celebrations to go see her.
However, when Razmik’s mother-in-law (Alla Tumanian) tries to find out where he’s gone, all hell breaks loose.
The more Sean Baker movies I watch, the more I realise his style perfectly taps into the type of films I love. I’ve only seen 3 so far but each one has been excellent and I think Tangerine is my favourite. It has so much energy and vibrancy, despite the tough setting and unflinching depiction of the lives of trans sex workers and immigrants in L.A.
Baker has always been great at humanising marginalised members of society. He never judges these groups for any behaviour that the middle classes might deem ‘inappropriate’. The sex workers’ dealings with their clients, for instance, are shown without damnation or titillation but instead displayed raw, warts and all. It’s just their job and is shown as such, even if it can cause problems with the law or unreasonable ‘Johns’.
Yet the film is still a lot of fun. The central pair of Rodriguez and Taylor are key to this, as their banter (which is largely improvised or at least written through their input) is fast-paced, sharp and hilariously funny. The pair have great chemistry too. They’re different but fit together very well.
The rest of the cast is spot-on too. Whilst Rodriguez and Taylor were non-professionals (albeit with a little training or experience singing), as well as some other side-players, there were also some professional actors thrown into the mix. Alla Tumanian is legendary in Armenia, for example, and some of the other Armenian actors are pretty big there too.
The broken-heart narrative also helps focus and drive the film. It’s simple but provides a relatable ‘in’ to a world that might otherwise be alien to your average Joe.
Going back to the iPhone aspect of Tangerine, this choice came largely from necessity. As mentioned, Baker couldn’t afford to shoot on film or on a high-end digital camera. He didn’t want to use a DSLR either, as he wanted to do something different, so decided to go down the iPhone route. This also allowed the team to free up cash for other aspects of the film, chiefly production values. It was never meant as a gimmick but it was picked up after the film hit the festival circuit and people were amazed by what they saw.
It was shot using a physical anamorphic adaptor and Filmic Pro app to be able to use pro controls on the phone and get a truly cinematic look. So, though it’s shot on low-end equipment and has that wide depth-of-field style familiar to phone photography of the time, it still looks good. Baker and his DOP Radium Cheung achieved this by ramping up the colours, using fluid camera movement and making great use of locations.
Also, a big bonus of the iPhone was to make it easier for the crew to get into locations without paying fees and in preventing too much attention from being drawn to them whilst shooting on the street.
There’s no need to get hung up on the tech though. Anything that captures pictures can be used to tell a story. It’s a shame that so much focus was put on the mobile phone cinematography on the film’s release, when the representation of transgender characters of colour is probably more radical and important.
Before I wrap up, a shout-out must be made to the film’s soundtrack. Baker found most of the music by listening to independently produced tracks on SoundCloud and Vine during post-production and contacting the artists directly for permission to use them in the film. They work a treat, with the soundtrack adding a lot to the energy, mood and character of the film.
All-in-all, Tangerine is another vibrant, intoxicating slice of urban life from Baker. Filled with energy, heart and attitude, it’s a joy to behold, yet never shies from the real-world difficulties faced by its characters.
Film: 
Tangerine is out now on Limited Edition Blu-Ray in the UK, released by Second Sight Films. The picture quality is remarkably good for a film shot on an earlier-generation iPhone. The audio is polished too, though the music is often punishingly loud in comparison to the dialogue. This is an issue I get with most modern films though and might not be as much of an issue for those that don’t have young children sleeping upstairs, as I have when I watch films.
Special features include:
– Audio commentary with Cerise Howard and Rohan Spong
– Merry F*cking Christmas: the making of Tangerine
– Staying Authentic: a new interview with director Sean Baker
– Honest and Hilarious: a new interview with actor Mya Taylor
– We Make It Work: a new interview with Cinematographer Radium Cheung
– It Was Electric!: a new Interview with Writer Chris Bergoch
– Inside a Tangerine: a new interview with producer Darren Dean
– The Magic Happens: a new interview with actor Karren Karagulian
– Legit Bruises: a new Interview with actor Mickey O’Hagan
– Just Hold It In!: a new interview with actor Josh Sussman
– To Be Real: Kat Ellinger on the cinema of Sean Baker
– Tangerine camera test
Limited Edition Contents:
– Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Caelin White at FEM Design
– 60-page book with new essays by Shaadi Devereaux, Caden Mark Gardner, Michelle Kisner and Jerome Reuter, an archive interview with Sean Baker and behind-the-scenes stills
– 6 collectors’ art cards
Cerise Howard is a trans film critic so has a particular connection with the film and its focus. Also, Rohan Spong is a documentary filmmaker who focuses largely on the queer community in his work. The pair deliver an enjoyable, light-hearted and fast-paced commentary where they analyse each scene as the film plays out.
The feature-length documentary is superb. It runs through the making of the film from inception to production and post in great detail. It helps you understand and appreciate Baker’s fairly unique style of devising and directing his projects.
You also get a heap of individual interviews. These are extended versions of those that appeared in the documentary, so there is a lot of crossover but there’s plenty of extra material that fleshes out the stories and adds more. I found the accounts of the crew members particularly interesting as they cast light on how the film was made on such a low budget. The interview with Josh Sussman is amusing too, looking at the vomit scene. It’s a lot of fun to sit back and work through the whole collection, in fact.
Kat Ellinger delivers a fascinating essay on Sean Baker’s depiction of the underclasses and how he avoids the tropes of ‘poverty porn’ and other problematic dramatisations.
I didn’t get a copy of the book or other physical extras to comment on those, I’m afraid.
So, Baker’s important and hugely enjoyable film is given the deluxe treatment it deserves. It’s a surefire contender for single-title release of the year. Very highly recommended.
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