Tangerine Reflection

Tangerine is unique in many ways–the subject matter, the way that it is filmed, and the characters that come to life from the second the film starts. However, the greatest part about this movie is the feeling that anyone could pick up a phone and make something similar, but no one can recreate the wackiness that is this movie. I walked into this screening not really knowing what to expect. My brothers and I used to make movies all the time on our iPod Touch’s and GoPros, so I wondered if this film would make me feel nostalgic yet simultaneously inspired. Boy, I was wrong. The plot of this movie is no where near something that just anyone could come up with and film on a whim. There is clearly an incredible amount of thought put into this film if you know where to look.

What stood out to me the most is the almost circular and converging nature of the storylines. Sin-Dee and Alexandra start out at Donut Time, go to the laundromat, go to the restaurant were they figure out Dinah’s name, go to the motel where the grab Dinah, and then finally end up at Alexandra’s performance. Then, the entire journey circles back to finding Chester right where they back where they started in the first place–Donut Time.

The story of the cab driver, which seemed entirely separate in the beginning also converges with the storyline of Sin-Dee and Alexandra about halfway through the film. We see that he has had previous encounters with the two and is actually looking for Sin-Dee himself. That convergence also reaches a peak when essentially everyone in the film ends up at Donut Time and everything blows up.