November 22, 2015 -- This highly unusual Christmas story about drag queens and drama queens and drag queens who are drama queens, and the men who love them is a road movie set in Los Angeles. The film is shot mostly in several blocks near the intersection of Highland Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd in taxi cabs and on sidewalks and donut shops.

Sin-Dee Rella (played by transgender actress Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is the drag and drama queen at the heart of this movie, along with her best friend, Alexandra (played by transgender actress Mya Taylor). Sin-Dee has just gotten out of prison (apparently for prostitution) when she finds out that her pimp-drug dealer-boyfriend, Chester (played by James Ransone) has been cheating on her with another prostitute, Dinah (Mickey O'Hagan).

Sin-Dee goes nuclear when she hears this news from Alexandra, and the two go off in search of Dinah on Christmas Eve, but Alexandra says she is leaving if there is drama. Sin-Dee is all about drama, so Alexandra finally leaves this vengeance quest for awhile. Since Sin-Dee is broke, she has to walk, and it is a long ways to walk, but the long walk doesn't cool her anger.

Sin-Dee goes to a lot of street corners, talking to a lot of prostitutes, and talks to people in a lot of businesses along the street who know what is going on in the local prostitution and drug scene, asking everyone where she can find that two-timing cheating bitch, Dinah.

After much searching, she finds Dinah plying her trade in a run-down motel room with a bunch of other prostitutes and customers. She storms in and drags Dinah out by the hair, determined to drag her all the way to see Chester and confront him.

Meanwhile, another character, a taxi driver from Armenia, Razmik (Karren Karagulian, who is also an associate producer of this movie) a married man who keeps his sexual preferences a secret from his family, especially from his aggressive, critical, traditional mother-in-law, Ashken (Alla Tumanian). A fair amount of time is spent on Razmik, and the passengers in his cab. One of the stranger passengers is “The Cherokee” played by veteran actor Clu Gulager (“Return of the Living Dead”). It turns out that Razmik is a frequent customer of Sin-Dee and Alexandra's sexual services.

Razmik crosses paths with Alexandra, who tells him, and everyone else she meets that day, about her singing debut at a local bar that night. When Razmik leaves the Christmas dinner table at home to go to work, his mother in law is suspicious. She decides to track him down, with the aid of another Armenian taxi driver who knows Razmik.

Sin-Dee wants to see Alexandra's singing performance at the bar, so she drags her captive, Dinah, along with her to the bar where Alexandra is going to sing. The situation is as awkward as you might expect, but a strange bond begins to form between Sin-Dee, Alexandra and Dinah. After the performance, Sin-Dee, Dinah and Alexandra continue on to the confrontation with Chester at a donut shop. Razmik and Ashken join in the fun at the donut shop, which turns into a huge melodramatic melt-down.

Before watching this movie, I thought I knew something about prostitution, but I didn't know the half of it. Some of these men dressing as women are easy to spot, but some arn't, and after a while I gave up trying to guess. What does it matter anyway? These are interesting characters and interesting relationships. This film was shot entirely with iPhone 5s (with special apps and adapters) and was reportedly edited on a MacBook Pro, but it looked fine to me, gritty, intimate and very realistic.

The story, by Sean Baker (who is also the director) and Chris Bergoch (“Starlet”) is captivating and the performances are convincing. This is one weird Christmas movie. It reminded me of other offbeat movies about life on the street, like “Gimme the Loot” (2012). This is one of those movies that proves you don't need a lot of money to make a good movie. It rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2015 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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