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The Florida Project
2017's The Florida Project is a pretty realistic look at a part of American society that most of us would like to think doesn't exist and those who do know, tend to look the other way.
Director and co-screenwriter Sean Baker takes an almost documentary-like approach to this look at life in a rundown Florida welfare hotel. The story is told through the eyes of a six year old girl named Moonie who lives at the hotel with her mother Halley, who pays her rent hustling, some of her hustles involve Moonie and some of them don't. We watch Moonie and other friends who live at the hotel wandering all over downtown Orlando and the various kinds of trouble they get into out of boredom and neglect.
Baker reveals a real eye and ear for the lives of these people and, more importantly, how it affects these children. It doesn't even occur to the viewer as the story unfolds that these children aren't in school. The question of why these children aren't in school is never really addressed, except for one brief scene between Moonie and her friend Jancey, where they are talking about something they heard about called recess. It's so sad watching these children being neglected to the point that they are seen wandering around Orlando doing anything they want, including burning an empty building to the ground.
I liked the way the story began with the children and then expanded into a look at their parents and the lives of everyone in the housing project, but Baker's pacing of the story is a little too leisurely, making these children initially very unappealing but when the way their parents are living is laid out for us, sympathy for these children does occur, but having the viewer wait so long for it was a little risky for a film like this. The film tries to explore why these people ended up here, but it sugar-coats it a little...there is no mention of drugs in the story and most of the people who live in hotels are doing it because they can live cheaply and still support their habit, but there is no mention of drugs in this entire film, which I found unrealistic.
Baker does utilize first rate production values here, including some beautiful photography and production design. I loved every time the camera entered a hotel room they were all very small and cramped and filled with stuff everywhere, barely giving tenants room to walk around in the space. Baker chose to put his somewhat compelling story first by not employing a lot of names in the cast. The biggest name in the cast is Willem Dafoe, playing the manager of the hotel, who received star billing and a supporting actor Oscar nomination for his performance. Not sure if the performance is Oscar-worthy, but he had one scene where he deals with a pedophile approaching the children on the property that was just fabulous. Bria Vinaite's in-your-face performance as Halley commands the screen and Brooklyn Kimberly Prince is just remarkable as Moonie. I also liked that, except for the finale, the film features no music, but the film is watchable and proves Sean Baker is an artist to watch.
2017's The Florida Project is a pretty realistic look at a part of American society that most of us would like to think doesn't exist and those who do know, tend to look the other way.
Director and co-screenwriter Sean Baker takes an almost documentary-like approach to this look at life in a rundown Florida welfare hotel. The story is told through the eyes of a six year old girl named Moonie who lives at the hotel with her mother Halley, who pays her rent hustling, some of her hustles involve Moonie and some of them don't. We watch Moonie and other friends who live at the hotel wandering all over downtown Orlando and the various kinds of trouble they get into out of boredom and neglect.
Baker reveals a real eye and ear for the lives of these people and, more importantly, how it affects these children. It doesn't even occur to the viewer as the story unfolds that these children aren't in school. The question of why these children aren't in school is never really addressed, except for one brief scene between Moonie and her friend Jancey, where they are talking about something they heard about called recess. It's so sad watching these children being neglected to the point that they are seen wandering around Orlando doing anything they want, including burning an empty building to the ground.
I liked the way the story began with the children and then expanded into a look at their parents and the lives of everyone in the housing project, but Baker's pacing of the story is a little too leisurely, making these children initially very unappealing but when the way their parents are living is laid out for us, sympathy for these children does occur, but having the viewer wait so long for it was a little risky for a film like this. The film tries to explore why these people ended up here, but it sugar-coats it a little...there is no mention of drugs in the story and most of the people who live in hotels are doing it because they can live cheaply and still support their habit, but there is no mention of drugs in this entire film, which I found unrealistic.
Baker does utilize first rate production values here, including some beautiful photography and production design. I loved every time the camera entered a hotel room they were all very small and cramped and filled with stuff everywhere, barely giving tenants room to walk around in the space. Baker chose to put his somewhat compelling story first by not employing a lot of names in the cast. The biggest name in the cast is Willem Dafoe, playing the manager of the hotel, who received star billing and a supporting actor Oscar nomination for his performance. Not sure if the performance is Oscar-worthy, but he had one scene where he deals with a pedophile approaching the children on the property that was just fabulous. Bria Vinaite's in-your-face performance as Halley commands the screen and Brooklyn Kimberly Prince is just remarkable as Moonie. I also liked that, except for the finale, the film features no music, but the film is watchable and proves Sean Baker is an artist to watch.