Tangerine

On Christmas Eve in Hollywood, Sin-Dee, a transgender sex worker just out of jail, learns her boyfriend has been cheating and spends the entire day hunting him down. The technical story still lands: Sean Baker shot the whole thing on three iPhone 5s handsets, fitted with FiLMiC Pro and anamorphic lens adapters. The money saved on equipment went to paying extras and clearing locations in Hollywood. Cheap technology was not used to make the film cheaper; it was used to move the money somewhere else. Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch found Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in 2013 while researching the project. Neither had meaningful acting experience. It premiered at Sundance in January 2015 and holds 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Mya Taylor became the first transgender actress to win a Gotham Award. Made for 100,000 dollars, it grossed 935,984. Who it is for: viewers who want loud, kinetic, street-level cinema. Who it is not for: anyone looking for calm. The film opens shouting and barely stops.