Synopsis: Set on a stretch of highway just outside the imagined utopia of Disney World, The Florida Project follows six-year-old Moonee and her rebellious mother Halley over the course of a single summer.
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, Caleb Landry Jones
Screenplay: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch
Directed by: Sean Baker
Sean Baker’s follow up to the delighfully raunchy TANGERINE (2015), THE FLORIDA PROJECT is a devastatingly realistic slice of (trashy) life of an American lower class family. Told primarily through the eyes of its lead character, Moonee (Brooklyn Prince), whose euphoric attitude clouds over her and her mother, Halley’s impoverished situation.
Brooklyn Prince is really remarkable as the innocent troublemaker Moonee. Moonee seemed never really grasp the hard situation they’re in, and simply having the best time of her life everyday, and it really showed in her charm-bursting performance. Another stand-out performance is of course Willem Dafoe’s. As a strict manager of the motel, his subtlety was also in charge of becoming a father figure for both Moonee and Halley when he needs to be.
A lack of clear plot, and a gritty look of the characters’ tough life might be hard to watch, but through his colorful lens, Sean Baker really captured beauty in an often neglected portion of society; where people living in motels, scamming as a mean to have money, and having the rest of the world as their playground. It’s a humanistic, often ironic, portrayal of down-on-their-luck people just trying to get by. [B+]
A copy of my review on Instagram.
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