Taylor plays Alexandra as the quieter, more cautious of the two, though her sweetness has a flinty edge that becomes more apparent as the plot thickens. The result is so grippingly watchable that the type of camera being used is really neither here nor there.Īs played by Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor – both appearing for the first time on film – best friends Sin-Dee and Alexandra are both heroic and deeply flawed. The immediacy of the handheld camerawork – coupled with the actors’ semi-improvised dialogue, which is mostly drawled out in long strings of slang-peppered invective – plunges the viewer straight in at the deep end of their hardscrabble existence, where they eke out a precarious living while battling to maintain some dignity in the face of the ridicule and disgust of mainstream society. Likewise, working with minimal equipment allowed the small crew to roam around their locations without drawing attention to themselves, giving the film an edgy, guerrilla feel.īut just as impressive is the quality of the performances, and the sheer big-heartedness of the story, which traces one incident-packed Christmas Eve in the lives of two transgender sex workers. In fact, this zero-budget work-around produces a dreamlike, colour-saturated effect that perfectly matches the drug-tinged hyperreality of its protagonists’ lives on the seedier streets and corners of Tinseltown. The phones in question were only slightly modified – fitted with Kickstarter-funded lens adapters and software that allowed Baker to lock exposure and focus to his own specifications – but the result sits very comfortably on the big screen and never feels like a home movie. You might assume that the most remarkable thing about Sean Baker’s touching and occasionally hilarious neo-screwball is the fact that it was shot on a handful of iPhones. Sean Baker’s joyous micro-budget tale was shot on iPhones and offers a very different addition to the festive canon. From there, the evening pans out, encompassing discovered infidelity, police interference, an impressive stage performance and family break-up. On Christmas Eve, a couple of transgender sex workers meet-up at a donut shop in Hollywood.
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