Set on Christmas Eve, the story follows a transgender sex worker who discovers her boyfriend and pimp has been cheating on her.

Alexandra hands out flyers for her musical performance that evening and argues with a client who refuses to pay; their argument is broken up by the police.

He meets Alexandra and fellates her in a car wash, then goes home to eat Christmas Eve dinner with his family.

Razmik leaves his family to attend Alexandra's performance, saying he has to work, but discovers he is too late and searches for Sin-Dee.

Ashken at first thinks Razmik's secret is that he is smoking marijuana, but Chester explains that he has sex with prostitutes.

Hurt, Sin-Dee leaves and tries to pick up some clients; they throw urine in her face and drive away shouting transphobic slurs.

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

[9] Baker was able to get some of the kit for free after reaching out to Moondog Labs (whose anamorphic adapters were still in their prototype stage on Kickstarter); they sent him three.

"[10] Baker used Final Cut Pro for a preliminary look of the film and DaVinci Resolve for color grading.

The site's critics consensus reads: "Tangerine shatters casting conventions and its filmmaking techniques are up-to-the-minute, but it's an old-fashioned comedy at heart—and a pretty wonderful one at that.

[24] Variety's Justin Chang wrote that Tangerine is "an exuberantly raw and up-close portrait of one of Los Angeles' more distinctive sex-trade subcultures.

Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky wrote that "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."

He concluded: "Perhaps these moments feel so graceful because they are oases; they matter because of the harsh, unforgiving terrain that has to be crossed in order to reach them.