Movie of the Week: The Florida Project

A harsh contrast between the unwavering joy of childhood and the hopelessness of reality.

The bookends of Sean Baker’s most recent directorial work, The Florida Project, are scenes involving only children. That seems like an important thing to note after seeing the film, mainly because one of its key themes is about, well, children. The Florida Project is a gritty, hyper-realistic (Baker’s M.O.) movie that has a lot to say on a few different big topics. Perhaps the most important of which, however, is a child’s astounding ability to rely on her imagination and innocence to obscure the dire reality surrounding her. Of course, there is a lot more going on here, but at the heart of the film is a juxtaposition between the wonder of childhood and the desperation of real life.

The Florida Project takes a look at three main characters and their distinct viewpoints on the situations in which they live. There’s Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), the young girl who lives with her mother in a rundown Orlando motel. There’s her mother Hailey (Bria Vinaite), who struggles to keep the two of them off of the streets. There’s Bobby (Willem Dafoe), the motel manager who balances his own problems with caring for the many different impoverished characters that reside in his motel. The movie follows these three characters through each of their trials and tribulations living in the underbelly of the Happiest Place on Earth.

Hailey is a young single mother living almost entirely on government programs. She has no job, and doesn’t really seem to be looking very hard for one, either. As the movie progresses, her actions become more and more reckless and immature, creating an even worse living situation for Moonee than when we first meet them. Quickly, she becomes a divisive figure in the film. On one hand, she is incredibly immature and abrasive; not really fit to be a mother in any way. On the other hand, she is staring down an overwhelming responsibility– raising a child in the throes of extreme poverty. Is she doing her best? Even that much is unclear. But if she isn’t, it’s (at least somewhat) understandable. She doesn’t have the child-goggles that Moonee has to help her cope with their bleak situation.

Bobby, perhaps the most interesting character in The Florida Project, just wants to do his job. His life is almost entirely consumed by the motel. Without much overhead or budget to speak of, the Magic Castle Hotel doesn’t have a large number of employees. So Bobby is the de facto maintenance man, pool cleaner, janitor, and policing force around the premises. His own family issues are hinted at in various moments throughout the film, but he is almost entirely defined by his job at the motel. That is why it is especially hard on him to watch as things go from bad to worse (and they only get worse) for Hailey and Moonee. He tries to help them, because he cares about them, and it ultimately ends up costing him a heavy emotional toll.

Then, of course, there’s Moonee. The center and star of the show. When we are first introduced to Moonee, she is caught spitting on a stranger’s car with a few of her friends. Throughout the rest of the film, we see similar moments of bad behavior from Moonee (a lot of them picked up from her mother), but we also see beyond that to the sweet young girl that she is. She’s too young to really be bad. Much like Bobby does, we start to care for Moonee and her wellbeing. That is what makes it so gut-wrenching as things continue to spiral out of control; things that a child has absolutely no power over start to creep in and threaten to break down her protective barrier of innocence. That barrier stays up for as long as it can, but ultimatly comes crashing down, as it does for every one of us at some point.

There are a number of moments throughout the film, almost like still images that Baker frames to perfection, that are independently emblematic of the movie as a larger entity. Simple things, like a strange-looking man with possibly sinister motives striking up a seemingly innocent conversation with Moonee and her friends as they play in the parking lot of the Magic Castle, or the opening of a bathroom door at the wrong time, end up punching the audience in the gut with far more weight than should be expected out of isolated moments. And when those moments are compounded, the film quickly becomes a tough watch. It is a necessary one, though, if the goal is to get a glimpse of the challenges of parenting, the challenges of poverty, and the challenges of growing up fast in a tough world.

Nothing about The Florida Project is easy. At times it felt too abrasive, and the ending is one that will leave some viewers thrilled and others disappointed. But few films are as honest about childhood as this one. The world sucks, and this movie knows it. But something else that The Florida Project recognizes is that we have the ability to find peace, and even happiness, in the smallest moments between the suck. Just because that ability is dulled with age doesn’t mean we don’t all have it somewhere, lingering. After all, at one point or another we were all just kids looking up at a rainbow, wondering how life could get any better. The answer, of course, is that it can’t.

Should you see it?

“I’m looking for something to watch with the whole family!”– NNNnnnooooooooOOOOOO!!!

“Oscar contender?”– This will most likely get some nominations in what is looking like a relatively thin year for traditional Oscar movies. After Moonlight last year, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of this movie (or Baker) going home with some significant trophies. We’ll see, though. This is the same person that thought big things were gonna be happening for Black Mass a couple years ago.

Hold on a sec, I’ve got to go projectile vomit all over this Starbucks bathroom….

(Black Mass was fine.)

(I’m not at a Starbucks right now. That just sounded like a place where a 20 year old pretend-movie-critic would do his or her writing.)

(It’s pretty fun when you’re writing for an audience of 8 people, because you know that you can go all the way off the rails without losing even a double-digit number of readers.)

“I am Willem Dafoe’s number one fan.”– That’s weird, but yeah he’s very good in this. Wouldn’t be surprised if he got a number of award nominations in the coming months at all.

“I am hypercritical of child acting.”– Maybe wait for this one to hit Netflix. The plot is centered around a handful of child actors, and while they all do a fine job, they’re all like six years old. I never once thought that their acting wasn’t realistic enough or whatever, but if you’re hypersensitive to that kind of thing, I’m sure there are moments in this that you won’t love.

“I can handle really gritty, at times very hard to watch, very dark movies.”– You can probably handle this. It’s not incredibly hard to watch, it’s just… not super fun. Less so than some of the very dark movies last year. Even Moonlight, a very tough watch, had a beautiful score and astounding cinematography to assuage your eyes and ears while you were punched in the gut over and over again. This one, like Baker’s previous stuff, is very barebones. There is almost zero music, and while it certainly has moments of great cinematography and framing, it’s not as eye-popping as other films. Still though, I highly recommend that anyone who likes good movies, even the hard ones, checks this out at some point.

Probably going to take another few weeks off (I know, heartbreaking) to let some movies pile up in theaters here. Ones I have my sights on: The Shape of Water, The Post, Lady Bird, The Disaster Artist, A Ghost Story, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. A24 is crushing it.