Tangerine 2015

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: Tangerine is a great Los Angeles movie and a great indie and a great reminder of the possibilities of creativity during a time when everything is a sequel or a reboot or a comic-book spectacle. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: These people are the way they are, the movie says. This obscenely vibrant patch of L.A. is officially an enclave. But Baker makes it feel bigger and louder and crazier than that. He turns subculture into family. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: [A] fresh, funny and acutely human comedy about a day in the life of some of Hollywood's edgier residents. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: 'Starlet' helmer Sean Baker delivers another compassionate portrait of life on the L.A. margins with this big-hearted, low-budget tale of two transgender prostitutes. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: For all of Tangerine's movement ... and all of its slapping and arguing, it's the movie's quietest, softest moments that register most strongly ... Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Rodriguez and Taylor are terrific. Their confidence is infectious, yet they never let us forget the challenges their lives offer. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: In effect, "Tangerine" offers a saccharine alternative to the uncut realism of the Safdie brothers' "Heaven Knows What." Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [A] rollicking indie comedy. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: It's not the technology and law-breaking that make this movie so ingeniously unique. It's the people, the place, the electric sense of movement and the biting sense of humor. Read more

Joe McGovern, Entertainment Weekly: Tangerine is touching for its non-condescending stance toward working girls and the spirit of the sidewalk. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: It's the warmth and absence of judgment or condescension toward its marginalized characters that make Sean Baker's film such a vibrant and uplifting snapshot. Read more

Rebecca Keegan, Los Angeles Times: The chemistry of the leads and their authentic, crackling dialogue make it a pleasure to tag along for the day. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Smart, antic comedy that's eager to offend. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Baker revels in the power of cliches and the generic energy of his low-fi cinematography, which is done with a cell phone. The results are picturesque and anecdotal. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: "Tangerine" offers a warts-and-all depiction of a subculture seldom treated with respect by straight society. The movie handles it in a sincere way that's entertaining, too. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Little is as it seems in "Tangerine," a fast, raucously funny comedy about love and other misadventures. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Baker gets great, sly, unforced performances from his two leads, but it's not all a rollicking good time: There are moments of quietude, inquietude, moments when a sense of wariness and loneliness settles over the women. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Shot on an iPhone 5 for practically no money, Tangerine jumps off the screen and wows you like nobody's business. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This is a gorgeous, timely and possibly profound human comedy, and if there's no disentangling the medium from the message that's because both are powerful and ambiguous. Read more

David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: This is sublime filmmaking, a textbook example of how indies can tell groundbreaking stories in a way that Hollywood simply can't match. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: A sneaky slice-of-life indie that comes on all casual and cinema-verite in the early scenes, then slowly coalesces into a romantic comedy as intricately constructed as any door-slamming stage farce. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Tangerine" is the wildest screwball transgender comedy since Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon donned lipstick, mascara and full-tilt female get-ups in "Some Like It Hot." Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Tangerine" has generated interest partly because it was made using iPhones augmented by other devices. But technology can only take a film so far - it's the story that really matters. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: There is much humour but souls and secrets are also bared as Baker considers the nature of friendship and a street-based family. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: A necessary portrait of a multiracial L.A. as a concrete-surfaced hard-knocks-a-thon... as well as a hilarious and high-spirited comedy with a dramatic, third-act curve ball that reminds us that there are aching hearts under the quips and weaves. Read more

David Ehrlich, Time Out: A reinvigorating reminder of what indie filmmaking can -- and should -- do. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Tangerine is all about possibility, and about becoming. Trans or not, we're all becoming, every day. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: What's extraordinary about Tangerine is that it's everything an entertaining, old-fashioned, mainstream Hollywood comedy should be but no longer is. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: As one character observes in "Tangerine," Los Angeles is "a beautifully wrapped lie." Baker has created a fitting homage to artifice and the often tawdry, tender realities that lie beneath. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The film is clearly not for everyone; sometimes it wasn't for me. But it's steadfastly nonjudgmental and wonderfully tender toward two searchers for new versions of old-fashioned love. Read more