Since the digital revolution busted through the scene in Hollywood, filmmakers were able to throw tons of money into a film and be confident that it would succeed because people are always drawn to the ground-breaking effects and illusions on screen. This digital revolution also made it possible for smaller films to be made more cheaply with technology becoming more accessible and much more advanced than it was thirty years before. It is a difficult, but necessary, task to compare two films from these different aspects of the digital revolution. Inception is a big budget thriller directed by Christopher Nolan in 2010 that dazzled audiences with its incredible effects, all-star cast, and original storyline. It cost $160 million to produce and created a revenue of around $828 million. On the other spectrum, Tangerine came out in 2015 by a rather unknown director, Sean Baker. It made a splash in the Sundance Film Festival for being not only one of the first films to be entirely shot on an iPhone, but to tell a story about transgender sex workers living in L.A. This progressive film cost only $100,000 to make and made just under $1 million in return.

The two very different films were both successful in their own way. Tangerine was humorously cheap to  produce and still cashed out paving the road for an unknown director. Inception was an expected winner with a story that Cameron had been writing for ten years to perfect it into the complicated storyline accompanied by the extravagant effects that audiences everywhere fell in love with.

Inception follows the story of Cobb, Leonardo DiCaprio, who is in the business of entering peoples’ dreams to steal ideas from them. When he is offered a job with the payout of finally being able to return home to his children, he cannot refuse, but there is a catch: instead of stealing ideas he has to plant an idea that could take down a multi-billion dollar corporation. His plan involves his team going into a dream within a dream within a dream. In dreams anything is possible so the effects put into the film include creating cities and the impossible action with anti-gravity and an insane skiing-and-shooting scene.

Lucid dreams and the concept of what true reality is are major themes in this film. The science of lucid dreams may not be completely accurate in the film according to a scientific journal connecting the film to real science. It says, “the film depicted certain aspects of dreaming in an unrealistic and exaggerated manner, contradicting existing scientific knowledge of lucid dreaming.” An ideology review of the film talks about how Inception challenges our view on reality and makes up accept that reality may or may not be what we realize it to be. When talking about the idea of inserting an idea into someone’s dream it says, ” Inception is one of those films that challenges out perception of things which is in this case dreams, it shows up a complex and surreal concept that explores the notion of a dream and how one simple idea spreads like a bacteria or a virus and when that idea is fully developed and fully understood it will never leave the mind.” Although Inception may not be completely based on science, it does offer a view of reality and the inception of ideas that makes almost too much sense in a instinctual manner that audiences are amazed by.

Inception is a conventional film that is powered by its huge budget with a goal to make a huge revenue, but it contains a very unconventional and ambiguous ending that asks the viewers to decide what is reality and if Cobb made it back home to his children or if he is still in a dream, but that is enough for him to be satisfied. There are theories everywhere that debate if the ending scene that cuts out right before we can tell if his totem stops spinning means that he is dreaming or not. Nolan wants us to decide for ourselves, but leaves heavy clues that he is indeed back in reality such as Cobb uses transportation to get off of the plane and drive to where his children are instead of just appearing there. At this point in the film, Cobb doesn’t care if he’s in reality or not because he is satisfied to see his children.

Tangerine, an independent film, is the modern tale of urban transgender prostitutes who are struggling just to survive. The story starts out with our main character, Sin-Dee, on the morning that she gets out of jail. Her best friend Alexandria spills the beans that rumor has it that Sin-Dee’s boyfriend has been cheating on her. The rest of the film shows the rampage that Sin-Dee goes on to confront her boyfriend. The entire film was recorded on a iPhone 5s which gives the film an organic feel to it that embodies the spirit of the Los Angeles culture.

 Tangerine is the second film to be entirely shot by an iPhone, following Uneasy Lies the Mind in 2014. Tangerine is the film to bring the new camerawork technique to the eyes of the public by stunning at the Sundance Film Festival. The film cost so little to produce since the major cost of filming was the video app used to control temperature, focus, and to capture the widescreen shots. It is a very unconventional film with a storyline not aimed for popular audiences and actors that have never been in a major motion picture before. 

The 2018 review by Elliot and Barber suggests that the use of the iPhone camera puts the audience in a role in the film to add to the experience and to enrich the themes of toxic masculinity that the film portrays. The review says, “we also participate in a system of toxic masculinity essentializes bodies and drains gender performance of meaning.” On the other hand, a research paper for the Marshall Plan Foundation suggests that the “The choice to use iPhones was made primarily for financial reasons.” The camerawork  turns out to mesh well with the storyline to make the audience believe the story being watched.

Tangerine also contains a very ambiguous ending that doesn’t wrap up any of the plot points, but instead gives the audience an emotional reaction to the story of two people that a lot of the audience would be so quick to pass by on the streets without giving them the time of day. The film helps us find understanding and acceptance for a sub-culture that is hard for many to accept.

The two films are entirely different in the ways they were produced and the audiences that they targeted, but both are landmarks in the digital revolution. Inception shows that high-budget films that capitalize on the wow factor from extreme effects can cause a reaction in audiences for years to come. Tangerine shows that with the improved technology we have today, films can spend less money to create a film that can still make an impact in our culture. Both films show just how far the digital revolution has come in two completely different ways.