last breaths of infinite summers
Something I do when I’m shivering cold and trying to warm up is imagine I’m watching Tangerine or The Florida Project (dir. Sean Baker). That feeling of blistering heat, sun rays hitting the pavement, sweat dripping as you run around the streets with your friends, having a wholesome time despite the chaos of a feverish world.
Two of Opal Age’s editors are from the most insufferably sunny (and in general, lol) places in the US so we are sharing the last rays of summer through these films from our homes as we slip into fall. We were too hot to be bothered writing a snobby think piece on these films so here’s our languid reflections on the bliss these films bring us instead.
The Gist
The Florida Project was dreamed up by Baker, who wanted to show the clash between poverty and extreme wealth. Orlando is the perfect place for this. Did you know it costs like a million dollars to spend 10 minutes in Disney world now? The colors, the filming, the acting, everything in this movie is so perfectly placed together.
Tangerine is such an intense sensory experience. I can smell the laundromats, taco joints, sugary fluorescent donut shops, gusts of metro station filthiness, and sticky-dry sidewalks on my soles. I’m pretty sure this is the first movie I saw portraying sex workers/ trans people as multi-dimensional beings, love that for us. Oh, and it was filmed on an iPhone! Along with immortalizing the power of gossip and two friends on a mission, it viscerally conveys the audacity it takes to walk anywhere in Los Angeles, a harrowing experience in itself.
Be held hostage and dragged by these films in 90+ degree* heat with us. <3
*32+ degrees for the celsius girlies
overall themes
-sun glaring in my eyes!!!!
-garishly colorful motels (the best kind)
-platonic love
Tangerine (2015) notes
- being broke but still buying donuts and paying bills for your friends, queerness and immigration to the US, everywhere is a walkable community *if you believe.* 2015 already feels nostalgic?????, peace amidst chaos (car wash head/ tucking hair behind someone's ear in a bar bathroom), it’s about who you share wigs with at the end of the day <3
-Alexandra paying the bouncer at the venue to perform her songs is such a classic creative dilemma/ mood. (also so real cause you can’t even look at hamburger marys without spending $20) she handed out b&w fliers all day to everyone she talked to on the street and only SinDee showed up late with her hostage, Desiree? Destiny? D-something, oh- Dinah.
-sun blasting even though it's christmas eve, (i literally forgot this was technically a christmas movie cause it’s so bright that you feel hot watching it), bus/city night lights, the evening glow of the hamburger marys, and everything looks like it’s in a 2015 instagram filter
-if nothing else, this movie is about TENDERNESS. i cry.
-girlies on quests for fulfillment. navigating love/ relationships as trans Black sex workers.
-set in east Hollywood strolling down Santa Monica Blvd. / Little Armenia
“Լոս Անջելեսը գեղեցիկ փաթաթված սուտ է:”
(“Los Angeles is a beautifully wrapped up lie”) -Razmik’s chismosa M.I.L.
“Agree to disagree” -Karo, taxi driver/ narc
Florida Project (2017) notes
-Celebrate is a perfect song for the opening credits, reminiscent of that one Disney sing-a-long I used to watch over and over and over as a kid.
-The COLOURS!!!
Iconic buildings:
-Orange world
-Gift shop
-Twistee treat
-“The doctor says we’ve got asthma and we’ve got to eat ice cream.”
-Willem Dafoe lighting a cigarette and then all the lights come on after it (great shot, purple colors)
-The stare down between dafoe and the kids when they’re eating the ice cream “I warned you one drip and you’re out” Did you know that when Moonee says “You’re not welcome” in this scene, that it’s improvised?
“Hey you know there’s alligators in there?”
collaborative piece by Katie (The Florida Project) and Claude (Tangerine)
