Tangerine -
(Sean Baker, 2015)
[NEW WATCH]
I’ve noticed sometimes I get really inspired by a director before I’ve even seen what exactly has inspired me about their work or process. Perfect example: Sean Baker and his use of the iPhone for filming
Tangerine. It has been one of the main inspirations for my own iPhone filmmaking as of late, even though I had never seen the movie.
I figured I would like it anyway, because I have seen Baker’s most recent flick
The Florida Project, which is an awesome movie. Baker’s definitely an idiosyncratic modern auteur if ever there was one, and I hope
Tangerine represents the beginning of a revolution in guerrilla filmmaking.
In interviews Baker has talked about how the film, in retrospect, couldn’t be made with anything but the iPhone. And I agree. It becomes such an integrated part of the aesthetic that you become drawn into the world, and had you known about what it was shot on prior to watching, you completely forget after a while. Baker has done what might have been unthinkable before: he made a movie where being shot on a phone
enhances the film, not detracts from it.
It’s entertaining and well-crafted throughout, but becomes downright stunning during the last twenty minutes. The Donut Time scene is so amazingly choreographed and full of energy that it gives an old Jackie Chan action flick a run for it’s money. Of course I realize a scene where bunch of people argue might not appeal to everyone, but the way everything is staged, edited, etc. - the way it cuts between the various characters in a way that flows so naturally - is pretty brilliant. After that climactic scene, you get hit with an emotional gut-punch that lingers until the end and reveals what the film is really offering.
The final scene, and I could even condense that to the final shot, is a brilliant summation of what good narrative filmmaking is in my eyes. The smaller, quieter character moments you don’t need many words for. A bond between two friends had just been temporarily broken. So sit them down and amplify who they are on the inside - and how both those cores connect to one another.
Reply to Topic
