This is an unexpected delight of a film, introducing us to the sometimes-seedy world of transsexual prostitutes that frequent a shop called Donut Time located in the heart of Hollywood. Amazingly shot entirely using iPhone 5 and with a budget of $100,000, director Sean S. Baker gives us a raw yet hilarious depiction of the lives of two transsexual prostitutes, Sin-Dee and Alexandra, endearingly played by Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, respectively.

Sin-Dee has just gotten out of a 28-day stint in prison, only to accidentally learn from her best friend Alexandra that her "boyfriend" Chester (more like pimp, played by James Ransone) has been cheating on her with another girl. This causes Sin-Dee to go on a no-holds-barred quest to find out who this girl is and get a little payback. Rotating into this LA story is a cab driver named Razmik (Karren Karagulian) who finds his married life to be boring and ordinary, seeking out prostitute transvestites to have sex with under cover of car washes and back alleys. When his mother-in-law strongly suspects that something may be up with her daughter's husband, she herself goes on an all-out quest to learn the truth. Soon, those jilted and on the hunt will intersect, and this is where the story, which is really well written and played out, becomes perfectly tense and anticipatory.

Sin-Dee's attempts to learn who her guy has been fooling around with on the side, and finally discovering the girl named Dinah (Mickey O'Hagan), only to keep her in tow as validation by constantly grabbing her hair like a human leash, leads to not only one hilariously extreme encounter after another through the Hollywood nightlife, but a discovery of who Sin-Dee really is in this world that many just drive by, unaware of it's uniquely diverse lifestyle.

Rodriguez plays Sin-Dee as a woman almost possessed, with her high-pitched voice and comedicly pushy attitude. A one might say that there's a little bit of Devine in her small frame, yet there's certainly no direct resemblance to any John Waters film. Although the subject matter is something Waters might have gleefully played with a bit more camp.

With all of Sin-Dee's exploits to call out her boyfriend's sex toy, along the way the movie explores the importance of friendship and about being true to who you are. These characters are certainly not played as a joke, instead embracing the LGBT culture as a world populated by real people who have deep emotions and social resonance.

Director Sean S. Baker worked as co-cinematographer with Radium Cheung using three iPhone 5 smartphones to shoot the entire film, which was augmented by the use of the FiLMIC Pro app, a video app (to control focus, aperture and color temperature, as well as capture video clips at higher bit-rates) and an anamorphic adapter from Moondog Labs (to capture widescreen). This is certainly a revolutionary technique, used to great affect in this film and surely yet one more tool that will amazingly allow future filmmakers to create and produce great looking movies on incredibly low budgets. Baker and Cheung also used Tiffen's Steadicam Smoothee to capture smooth moving shots.

Baker met transgender actresses Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, who had no major acting experience, at a Los Angeles LGBT Center in 2013.

"Tangerine" is both hilarious comedy and resonating drama with crisply written dialogue and very colorfully likable characters. The film is innovative while not relying on innovation. It presents the transgender community in a real life setting that's never clichéd. Above all else, this movie is a surprise amongst the current cinematic canvas and craze of superhero flicks, and discovering it is very satisfying.