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Kokomo City Movie Review

Kokomo City is a 2023 documentary film directed by D. Smith. It’s one of the better and most interesting documentaries of the year.

In this film, four black transgender sex workers tell their life stories in intimate and candid interviews. We always hear about black trans sex workers being killed, but we rarely get a glimpse into what it’s really like being in their shoes. This movie offers that and the result is a documentary that is not only interesting for anyone with an open mind, but genuinely provocative and important in what these women have to say.

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Yes, so many documentaries try to tell something, but this movie includes more messaging than the majority of those docs that focus on their filmmakers speaking their mind. Here, D. Smith smartly let these four trans women speak their own truths and it was that restraint on her part that led to the movie being so authentic. It is enough to just let your subjects speak.

And these sex workers have a lot to say. You wouldn’t think that you would hear so many hard-hitting truths from this source, but what they had to say about sexuality and psychology was not only fascinating, but also genuinely provocative and unabashedly honest. So many of these seemingly straight and macho men are into trans women sexually, but nobody ever talks about this. It just might be its own type of sexuality, something that is clearly underexplored by psychologists.

They also talk about their clients and how they don’t get enough sex from their wives, so they have to go to them to get that pleasure. We even hear from some of these men, who are so open-minded and honest about their trans attractions, refreshingly so for black men. The movie never vilifies these men, but it also clearly showcases that in a world that is so obsessed with the idea of protecting masculinity, these men feel insecure, so this leads to them becoming a danger to trans sex workers.

If there is one thing that Kokomo City failed to do is to warn about the dangers of this profession, one where so many of these trans women get killed way too often. We do get to hear about that, but not nearly enough as the movie might be a bit too positive and optimistic given the circumstances. But when it comes to the transgender experience overall, this is where these interviewees are surprisingly upfront.

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There is also the problem of the very limited approach to this subject as the vast majority of the film is just about these four trans women. The film is admittedly a bit too short, but it works because the interviews are so fascinating and detailed. The black-and-white cinematography is so great, though the score is at times frustratingly on-the-nose. But the directing from D. Smith shows a lot of promise from this newcomer who has a great eye for striking imagery and excellent editing and structuring.