Our take
Before Tangerine and Anora, one of Sean Baker’s first films was Take Out, the only movie he co-directed with Shih-Ching Tsou. It’s pretty good. The film is an interesting glimpse in his filmography because it’s clear his sophomore film was where he found his niche, developing his social realist style through handheld cameras, observational shots, and a time-constrained plot that journeys through the city and witnesses moments usually left out of Hollywood films. While this film takes on a familiar story, Take Out nonetheless proved to be a promising start to a filmmaking collaboration that now became the face of American indie naturalism today.
Streaming arrival
What it won
Spirit Awards
1 nom
The story
An illegal Chinese immigrant falls behind on payments on an enormous smuggling debt. Ming Ding has only until the end of the day to come up with the money.
Elsewhere
"A remarkable film...Baker and Tsous simple narrative feels like a richly authentic documentary."
— Shauna Lyon
"...manages to mix immersive, pseudo-documentary filmmaking with a suspenseful narrative."
— Sara Cardace
Ming Ding, an undocumented Chinese immigrant in New York, works frantically to raise enough money in order to pay his debt to his smugglers within the day.
The cinema verite style. It’s not a new approach, but it was pretty smart to use it at a time when America became interested in seeing other sides of its culture.
Shih-Ching Tsou continued to work with Sean Baker as his producer, so we’re interested to see what they have in store when they swap roles for their upcoming film Left-Handed Girl.
The details
Who picked it
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
Amazing little film! May I ask, what the budget was? Thank you.