Tangerine: Movie Analysis

If I told you a movie made with an iPhone was better than most of the mainstream movies in Hollywood, would you believe me? If you don’t believe me then get on Netflix and watch Tangerine. The movie is rowdy, unconventional, and silly but at the same time, it’s exuberant, colorful and beautiful. Unlike most movies nowadays, Tangerine doesn’t try to sugarcoat the ugliness and struggles of everyday life with an unrealistic narrative. It’s amazing how Sean Baker can create a movie with such a low budget that is creatively superior in comparison to recent big-budget movies in Hollywood like Jupiter Ascending. Obviously, those movies are in a different genre however, you can still tell where the money was spent on; amazing the audience with innovative
After coming out of jail Sindee is informed by her best friend that her boyfriend Chester is cheating on her with a Caucasian woman. Sindee’s quest to find Chester and the girl that he slept, kick start’s the entire movie. Later in the movie, we are introduced to Ramzik, an Armenian taxi driver in grubby streets of LA, who clearly hates his job or should I say his annoying clients. As the movie progresses it becomes evident that we are watching the lives of these three main characters through a camera and not a regular movie. The vibrant cinematography of the movie is something that really stands out and sets the tone from the beginning. The vibrant sunset in the background helps the cinematography stand out. Even in scenes in which nothing is going on, you can admire the background which is full of life with an animated orange color which is the sunset ruminating all over Los
Unlike Alexandra and Sindee, Ramzik has to hide his sexuality due to the fact he’s an Armenian immigrant who grew up in a different culture which is very different from the US. This is realized in the scene in which Ashken (Razmik’s mother-in-law)goes full detective mode and tries to find out his whereabouts when he decides to leave in the middle of a Christmas dinner to find Sindee. For some odd reason, Ramzik has some obsession over Sindee. The scene is very important in helping the audience understand Ramzik’s struggles in terms of fully being accepted by the people in his culture and not being shamed by his sexual orientation. Although Ashken and Karo’s conversation didn’t really advance the overall plot, it furthered the theme of Ramzik’s story in the movie. When Karo finally obliges to take Ashken to her Razmik, he says that Razmik is lucky to be America and not in Armenia and that even if he doesn’t respect himself, he should respect his family. Just from those statements alone, you can infer that the Armenian people are more conservative as it pertains to their views towards the LGBT community. Unlike his friends Sindee and Alexandra, Ramzik must keep his sexuality hidden from his family not just because he is cheating on his wife and has kids but more importantly because he’s not completely straight. Even though his actions are morally wrong, and he has