[every so often, contributing writer and local degenerate marrrrrrr takes a break from binge-watching old seasons of survivor and puts his demolished sleep schedule to semi-productive use by cooking a small meal and reviewing a movie from an ever-expanding backlog of films that’s so long the “movies” bookmark folder on his web browser qualifies him as a digital hoarder. this is Midnight Movies.]
film: Tangerine (2015)
food: shrimp & jalapeño ramen
pre-game: it’s pride month so here’s an indie film directed by sean baker (previously known for Greg the Bunny). boasting a relatively miniscule budget (100k according to wikipedia) and filmed entirely on iPhones, it’s about a transgender prostitute recently released from prison and trying to track down her pimp/boyfriend (starring actual, factual trans actresses, which maybe some day won’t feel obligatory to point out, but in the meantime, is good to say).
post-game: the movie opens with sin-dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) buying best friend alexandra (Mya Taylor) a donut at a Hollywood shop as a christmas eve gift. fresh out of a month-long prison stay, sin-dee has an announcement regarding chester, her pimp and boyfriend. before she can get it out, alexandra, assuming news of a breakup, spills the beans that chester had been cheating on sin-dee with a white girl (“desiree? dana? something with a d”), sending sin-dee on a rampage in search of chester, or the mistress, or anyone who might have the gall to stand in her way. (the scene where sin-dee storms out of the donut shop to the beat of “Team Gotti Anthem” by DJ Heemie and DJ Lightup instantly brought to mind the manic energy and sense of impending violence found in early tarantino, specifically Reservoir Dogs (1992)).
in a movie almost completely marketed by its surprises (filmed on iPhones! shot in L.A.! stars real trans actresses!), what surprised me the most was the sheer amount of levity (probably my fault for assuming a movie about trans POC sexworkers would be an oppressively sombre tragedy). there’s stuff here that’s downright hilarious. in one of my favorite scenes, sin-dee and dana/denise/d-something briefly set aside their differences after noticing that one of them has a crack pipe and the other has some rock. (drugs truly are uniters). in another, alexandra, moments before beating up a john who tried to rip her off, yells, “you forget i got a dick, too.”
and while “transgender prostitute tears through L.A. in search for her pimp” sounds like a tagline ripe for exploitation, what keeps it from feeling like an extended episode of Cops is the script, steeped as it is in realism and sympathy for its characters. and when the cops do make an appearance, it’s not a huge moment of suspense on the precipice of a vastly unjust oppression. the police and the prostitutes treat each other the way that seems truest to life: as familiar nuisances. (though, in a moment also true to life, the cops deliberately misgender alexandra. it doesn’t lead to any kind of blow out, alexandra is too smart for that. but it does feel like a subtle signal to the audience from the filmmakers to let you know whose side they’re really on).
circling the main plot, both figuratively and geographically, is cab driver ramiz (Karren Karagulian) who puts up with all manner of customers (depressed, lonely, entitled, drunk) wiling the time until the brief moments he can pursue his own delights. (without giving too much away, he knows both sin-dee and alexandra by name and by trade).
i remain ambivalent about the inclusion of his story. on one hand, it’s not given enough development to create the kind of impact to match its comparatively serious tone (which seems particularly jarring when both plots collide late in the movie). on the other, it underscores an important theme: the definition and function of family.
the title of the movie refers to a scented air freshener alexandra buys for ramiz’s taxi after some customers puke in it. it’s a great metaphor for one of the other themes: the deep importance of small moments of kindness punctuating a crapsack of cruelty and indifference. they don’t fix everything, but maybe they make it just a little tolerable.
rating: an elementary arts and crafts christmas angel tree topper made from linen strips that your parents still hang up every year.
