I saw Tiger Orange earlier this week when it was screened as part of the BFI Flare Festival, a two-week festival at the BFI Southbank in London that screens films with LGBT topics at their heart. It’s an effective piece of cinema that makes the most of its limited setting and low budget.
The premise is quite straightforward: openly gay Todd (Frankie Valenti) returns to his small Californian hometown following the death of his homophobic father (Vincent Duvall) and is reunited with his older brother Chet (Mark Strano). Seeking to hide his sexuality whilst running the family hardware store, Chet struggles to accept how open Todd is about something he has spent his life trying to hide from the local community.

Strano (centre) and Valenti (right) bring their characters to life with some really effective performances.
I was impressed by the acting performances too, with both leads actors clearly at ease in their characters, probably drawing on some levels from their own experiences. Strano does well to hold his own in a more understated role, when lesser actors would have allowed Valenti to steal the show with a more immediate and attention-craving character. I was surprised to read that Valenti used to be a pornographic film actor, such was his performance in this film. I’m not convinced the sort of depth of character was necessary in his previous line of work.
Gasque has made the most of what was likely a relatively low budget and created something special. I doubt this will reach a wide audience globally, but those that do seek it out will be rewarded.
Tiger Orange is not currently scheduled for a wide UK release. It was recently picked up for global distribution with Wolfe Releasing.
[…] of films this week at the BFI Flare Festival at the Southbank. The review for effective indie drama Tiger Orange was posted earlier tonight and the review of the excellent Dear White People goes live tomorrow […]
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