“Merry Christmas Eve, bitch.”*
Shot entirely with an iPhone, Tangerine weaves and threads through the streets of West Hollywood following transgender prostitutes Sin-dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor). It’s Christmas Eve, and Sin-dee has just been released from a 21-day jail stint. And she’s fuming because rumor has it her boyfriend/pimp Chester has been cheating on her with a fish — or cisgender woman to those who aren’t in the know. So while her best friend Alexandra keeps pleading for “no drama,” Sin-dee stomps around the neighborhood looking for Chester and Diane, Denise, or Deena — whatever the bitch’s name is — to extract some answers and maybe some vengeance. Their paths continuously intersect with other pimps, prostitutes, police officers, johns, and a myriad of West Hollywood locals. The camera also follows an Armenian cab driver named Razmik (Karren Karagulian) who appears to have a thing for Sin-dee and not much love for his wife, mother-in-law, and baby at home attempting to celebrate the holiday.
This all might seem a touch frenetic, which it surely is. But this engaging drama and its subsequent hilarity sometimes pause and allow for quieter, more tender — and equally captivating — moments between characters, ones in which we glimpse the depth of who these individuals are as human beings. Beneath the fevered bravado and tough performance, Sin-dee and Alexandra are characters with desires and hopes for themselves and one another. It’s something to see a film in which these women — characters that are normally marginalized and mocked in most popular media — are shown, simply and powerfully, with their humanity on full, technicolored display.
*dialogue from the film
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