Tangerine

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🎙️ EPISODE 494: 06.22.22 This movie is a rarity in that it is both painfully rough and sad, and somehow also very funny. It is the two masks theater symbol (one happy, one sad) — you know the one: 🎭 — come to life. The fourth of five LGBTQ+ Wednesday selections here at MovieJeff.com is also doubling as a kickoff to a new, impromptu Director Focus on the work of fellow New Jerseyian, Sean Baker. This feels like a landmark piece to some degree for its no bullshit portrayal of transgender characters and for its stylized lo-fi approach (shot for 100K with three iPhone 5s smartphones). It definitely feels as if the message is firmly intertwined with the medium here. It is the perfect aesthetic for the film.

The subject matter is horrifying to anyone, not just conservatives (it's about living with simple dignity vs. having nothing but scorn and contempt ). This isn't quite how the other half lives, but how the other 1/1,000th lives, and it treats this sliver with dignity even as their own stories seem to be drenched an unending waterfall of degradation, stigma and humiliation. But it's also about how the flies on the walls can be secret freaks in their own right, giving into impulse and living constant lies. The symbiotic nature of this economy is fascinating; one side fighting to be openly free and the other side wallowing in their inability to accept themselves.

This might be a perfect movie, but it's definitely, unimpeachably an Important one. And that's enough to warrant a 10 outta 10 in my book (The Bible™).

(Also special shout-out to actor James Ransone, still kicking it after that freak Larry Clark made him j-off to completion on Ken Park)

~ 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒟𝒾𝓇𝑒𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇 𝐹𝑜𝒸𝓊𝓈 𝑜𝓃 𝒮𝑒𝒶𝓃 𝐵𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓇 ~

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 493 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 494 ⫸

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Tangerine is a 2015 American comedy-drama film directed by Sean Baker, and written by Baker and Chris Bergoch, starring Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, and James Ransone. The story follows a transgender sex worker who discovers her boyfriend and pimp has been cheating on her. The film was shot with three iPhone 5S smartphones. Tangerine premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2015. It had a limited release on July 10, 2015, through Magnolia Pictures. It received critical acclaim for its screenplay, direction, performances and portrayal of transgender individuals. It was released on January 23, 2015.