Movie Review Monday: The Florida Project

Hello TV & Film Soc and welcome to another thrilling installment of Movie Review Monday!

The weather is chilly and the skies are dark. Because of this, we would like to take the opportunity to transport you, dear readers, to the warm, balmy sunshine of a place far, far away: Florida. Released in 2017, director Sean Baker’s film The Florida Project is a poignant glimpse into life on the fringes of society. Set in the Magic Castle, a lavender monolith of a motel on the outskirts of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, we are introduced to Moonee, a six-year old girl, and her mother Halley, a foul-mouthed, heavily tattooed 20-something. Halley and Moonee live at the Magic Castle, and we watch their day-to-day activities over the course of a summer. The Florida Project is not a melancholy look into the lives of America’s poor, but rather an undeniably honest picture of an impoverished, innocent little girl running wild through the streets while her mother struggles to do the best she knows how.

We meet Moonee during her summer vacation and see how each day unfolds into a new adventure, as she leads a ragtag gang of motel children around the strip next to the highway that acts as their neighborhood. Moonee’s scenes are shot in super-wide angles, emphasizing her smallness against the magnitude of the gaudy tourist-traps she passes each day. The dangers that Moonee and her friends face from their lack of parental supervision become apparent in snippets -- an old man slyly approaches the children like a predator as they dance on top of picnic tables, but luckily the manager of the motel is close by and threatens to call the police. Another time, Moonee and her friends inadvertently burn down an abandoned house after they steal a lighter.

The film echoes with the flat stomps of Moonee’s little feet running across hot pavement and her breathless, shrieking laughter. In these moments, we remember that she is just a child enjoying her summer break. But when she returns to her motel room, darkened by a sheet hanging over the window and hazy from Halley’s cigarillo smoke, you cannot help but feel pity for Moonee--perched on the bed watching infomercials, oblivious to her squalor. However, she never once complains or asks for something her mother cannot give her. Though Halley never disciplines her daughter, she also never raises her voice at Moonee or abuses her in any way. It is this element of the film--the close, loving bond that Halley and Moonee share--that almost justifies their living conditions. Sean Baker focuses his film not on what Moonee and Halley don’t have, but on what they do have--each other.

Moonee’s mother Halley is played by Bria Vinaite, a 24-year old Brooklynite discovered by Sean Baker on Instagram. Even though The Florida Project is her acting debut, Vinaite projects an intense realness on-screen. For most of the film, it doesn’t seem like Vinaite is playing a young mother; it seems like Halley and Moonee are two girlfriends, just hanging out. However, As the film progresses, Halley’s lackadaisical parenting slips more and more until it reaches a breaking point.

Sean Baker’s genius casting of veteran actors (Willem Dafoe) and newcomers (Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince), energizesThe Florida Project. Baker pitilessly lays bare the lives of America’s lower class. He uses his cast and stunning cinematography to create a world rarely seen joyfully. It’s darkly ironic that the sleazy, scruffy occupants of the Magic Castle exist on the fringes of Walt Disney World, the most magical place on Earth. However, Moonee and Halley do not wallow in the fact that there is a real-life castle just outside their reach. Baker has created a startlingly honest and funny story through the eyes six-year old Moonee. The Florida Project leaves the audience with genuine emotional ties to the characters, as all good films do.