The Florida Project (2017)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Florida Project (2017) – S. Baker

Director Sean Baker caught my attention with 2015’s Tangerine, a story of down-but-not-out transsexual prostitutes in Hollywood shot entirely on iPhones.  His latest film shifts locations to Orlando, Florida, but retains the emphasis on those doing it hard at the bottom. More poignantly, his focus is on very young children who retain a wonderful joie-de-vivre despite their situation.  Specifically, these kids live at a motel (“Magical Kingdom”) that is managed by long-suffering but good-natured Bobby (Willem Dafoe, the only recognisable cast member, in a perfect performance).  He looks after his long-term tenants, particularly Halley (Bria Vinaite), a young unemployed single mum, who loves her six-year-old daughter Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) but wouldn’t win any parenting awards.  Moonee and her friends are free range, running wild across parking lots between shops and busy roads, making mischief but having fun.  Things are not so easy-going for Halley but she tries to have fun; however, her rebellious anger (who gives a f attitude), seemingly (but not overtly) attributable to her lack of money and opportunity, causes problems for her. Baker shows us just one “magical” summer (from the kids’ perspective) but we know it can only lead to a dead end.  It’s wistful, slice-of-life stuff – but there’s an unavoidable tension here, particularly for parents.  Baker doesn’t judge his characters, he just shows us how bleak things are, in the shadow of a real fantasy world only moments away but impossible to reach. The kids just don’t know this yet.