Tangerine review – one-crazy-night transgender drama has real energy

Shot with an iPhone 5S and an app called Filmic Pro, Sean Baker’s no-budget indie comedy Tangerine has a rough-and-ready feel, an anarchic sort of New Wave looseness. It’s about the explosive friendship of two trans sex workers, Alexandra (Mya Taylor) and Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez). Sin-Dee has just served a short time in prison for assault and is furious to hear on Christmas Eve that her boyfriend/pimp Chester (James Ransone) has been unfaithful. (The scene when Sin-Dee finds out is weirdly similar to Richard Curtis’s gag at the start of Four Weddings and a Funeral.)

Sin-Dee sets out to find him for a showdown; meanwhile, a regular customer called Razmik (Karren Karagulian) – a married Armenian taxi driver – is destined to cross paths with them both, along with his wife and mother-in-law. It’s set at street level in the tough and seedy neighbourhoods of West Hollywood: the camera often seems low, as if squinting from a car window, or loping along beside and behind the characters. It’s almost a shock at one stage to recognise the stars in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and realise how unglamorous this is. This is a one-crazy-night picture, a little like Alex Holdridge’s LA indie pic In Search of a Midnight Kiss, from 2007. There’s real energy.