Tangerine

"Shit floats to the surface"

2015 1h 27m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

🔥

96%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.1

IMDB

★6.9TMDB · 836🍅96%Rotten Tomatoes●86Metacritic★7.1IMDB · 41,468

ComedyDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

It's Christmas Eve in Tinseltown and Sin-Dee is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn't been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the working girl and her best friend, Alexandra, embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their rip-roaring odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles, including an Armenian family dealing with their own repercussions of infidelity.

“Shit floats to the surface”

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Cast

Kitana Kiki Rodriguez
Sin-Dee Rella
Mya Taylor
Alexandra
Karren Karagulian
Razmik
Mickey O'Hagan
Dinah
Alla Tumanian
Ashken
James Ransone
Chester
Luiza Nersisyan
Yeva
Arsen Grigoryan
Karo

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Sean Baker
Writers: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch
Languages: Armenian, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

87 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 9.3× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 11 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Armenian, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Sean Baker, shot by Sean Baker. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Sean Baker shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor and Karren Karagulian carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Sean Baker directs. Sean Baker behind the camera. Sean Baker cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Armenian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

187 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Made its money back 9.3× over at the box office.
4Released 11 years ago.
5Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Armenian, English.
6Directed by Sean Baker, shot by Sean Baker. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Editor Sean Baker shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor and Karren Karagulian carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Shit floats to the surface".
10IMDB entry: tt3824458 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 22 themes, including "taxi", "prostitute", "transsexuality", "taxi driver".

The technical file

Cinematography: Sean Baker
Editing: Sean Baker
Costume design: Tsou Shih-ching
Sound: Jeremy Grody
Runtime: 87 min · 1h 27m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $100,000
Box office: $925,000
Return: 925% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Tangerine (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes: 96% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 86/100
IMDB rating: 7.1/10 · 41,468 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

24 wins & 42 nominations total

Also by

Sean Baker

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Reno2016-10-14
★ 7/10
On the Christmas eve in the LA streets. Just one day event based theme and brilliantly made film. This film was made using iPhone 5s and this is not some film school project. The quality was really top notch, with great performances by all who involved in. I have never seen such perfectly rendered transgender story. I mean no offense, but it looked so real. Hats off to the director, writer and the actors. Last year, there were some talks about this film's chances at the Oscars, but in the end it did not make. So after that I kind of lost interest in it, but now I had an opportunity to watch and I liked it very much. How a simple story and its simple characters developed were the highlights. You can't predict this stuff, because you won't know what comes after the each twist. Most of the film takes place on the evening time, so that colour of the sky is what the title represents. I don't think anybody would dislike this film. It was slow, but short and sweet. One of the best films from the 2015. You much choose this to watch for its uniqueness in the filmmaking and the storytelling. In addition to that, it also entertains, so there's your reason to go for it. 7/10
CinemaSerf2022-06-09
★ 6/10
So it was all filmed on my favourite iPhone - the 5S. I had one until only recently when the failing battery finally forced me onto the 12 mini. Aside from that impressive technical feat, though, this really isn't anything special. "Sin-Dee" (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) gets out of jail after a 28 day stint for possession, only to find that the guy she took the fall for - her boyfriend "Chester" (James Ransone) has been fooling around with "Dinah" (Mickey O'Hagan). Livid, she sets off with her best friend "Alexandra" (Mya Taylor) to find this woman and to confront her beau with his treachery. Meantime, cabbie "Razmik" (Karren Karagulian) breaks up that narrative with some quite entertaining vignettes with his passengers. "Mia", a man named after a bird, a couple who have been over-indulging in pre-Christmas booze - and leave him a smelly, unwanted gift - all whilst he cruises for some transvestite action in an alleyway. The stories gradually merge together as it turns out the married Armenian driver has the hots for "Sin-Dee" and it all comes to an head in a donut shop with his wife, child, mother-in-law as well! The handheld photography is intimate, presenting us with a fly on the wall style documentary around half a dozen not especially nice or interesting people going about their lives. It is made largely on the move, there is rarely a let up as the story fluidly moves along - but that story is frankly pretty lame. "Sin-Dee" drags "Dinah" around downtown LA in her bare feet at will; nobody intervenes - even when she drags her onto a bus! The dialogue is weak and angry, the characters selfish and I found that after about half an hour I just couldn't really care less about any of them. Is it supposed to be about friendship? They all appear to be as ready to betray each other as to get up in the morning. Sean Baker does create a film here that is intense, but there is nothing to hook the audience. If this were documentary on transvestite hookers in LA, then it would show nobody in anything like a sympathetic light and adding dialogue to that doesn't change that basic sentiment. As an example of how film-making is going to change profoundly with the advent of small, hand-held, filming technologies this is a great example of a flexible and portable technique. As a story about people, it is pretty miserable.
badelf2022-10-04
★ 5/10
Filming on consistently overpriced hardware that is a manifest of chokepoint capitalism (term coined by Cory Doctorow) is not enough make great cinema.