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It’s difficult to describe “The Florida Project” in a way that conveys its brilliance without coming across as mushy and sentimental in the process. It is one of those films where the execution of the plot defies the description of the story. Small notes add up to form something significant in this film, the kind of film that sneaks up on you and stays with you for a long time afterward. The film, like last year’s Best Picture winner “Moonlight,” achieves much of its brilliance through a focus on a single subject. While the story of a single mother and her daughter living on the edge of society is all too familiar, it is told in a way that embraces the specifics of their situation rather than attempting to make some sort of universal statement. Co-writer/director Sean Baker conveys the specific truths of his characters’ daily lives with great care, and it is this honesty that lends such power to “The Florida Project.” This is an outstanding film, and it is one of the best of the year.
On their way to the Magic Kingdom, most people pass right by the Magic Castle motel, which they don’t even notice because it’s so small and unassuming. This motel is located on a strip of cheap motels, gun stores, tourist traps, and various other establishments, and it accommodates a wide range of people, from tourists looking for a bargain (or, in one of the film’s funniest scenes, tourists who have booked the wrong hotel) to working class people who have effectively turned it into a permanent residence. Baker purposefully introduces us to his child protagonists, best friends Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and Scooty (Scotty McCreery), first and foremost (Christopher Rivera). A neighboring motel is their destination, and they’re on their way to spit on a car from the balcony above. It’s just one of those silly things that kids do when they have nothing else to do during the day. It’s just another day in the neighborhood of the Happiest Place on Earth. After the car’s owner becomes enraged, Moonee and Scooty recruit her granddaughter, the sweet Jancey, as a third accomplice in their criminal enterprise (Valeria Cotto).
And it is at this point that we reach one of the previously mentioned points where putting “The Florida Project” into words becomes difficult. If I told you that it is primarily about the exploits of these precocious motel-dwelling kids, you would probably think I was talking about some horribly cloying piece of Hollywood trash, one of those films that idealizes youth and despises poverty. Baker does neither of these things. And it is the tonal balancing act that distinguishes “The Florida Project” as being particularly breathtaking.
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We basically follow the day-to-day activities of a wide-eyed, funny, and imaginative youngster, the kind who throws a dead fish in the pool to see if it will come back to life and turns off the electricity to the entire motel just to see what happens next. The character of Moonee and her life aren’t particularly noteworthy in the traditional movie sense. The fact that every day is a new adventure for Moonee is a source of concern for Baker, who is careful not to romanticize the situation. The fact that Moone is a somewhat unusual child, the type who gets a kick out of making noises into an oscillating fan or brushing her doll’s hair in the bathtub, is acknowledged by the father, but he never turns her into a precocious Hollywood cliche of the innocent with wide eyes. Moonee is well-versed in the business. She is more educated than the majority of adults in her immediate environment. She, on the other hand, wants to have a good time every day. Of course, the fact that Baker has discovered a future star in Brooklynn Prince, who gives one of the best child performances in recent memory, helps him tremendously. She is so genuine that you forget that Moonee is a fictional character, and you become completely absorbed in her life as if it were real.
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While watching “The Florida Project,” we begin to notice that Moonee’s mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) is becoming increasingly isolated socially and economically. She struggles to make ends meet, can’t find work, and ends up selling perfume in the parking lots of some of Orlando’s more upscale hotels. Neither the food nor the roof over her family’s heads are sufficient to meet their needs in the current economic climate. The hotel manager Bobby, played to perfection by Willem Dafoe, is another character who notices that Halley and Moonee are good people despite the fact that they are traveling on treacherous terrain. The performance here is one of Dafoe’s best in a long and very distinguished career. Bobby’s appearances in the film are often episodic, similar to Moonee’s story, but Dafoe uses these small beats to develop a fully three-dimensional character. He has seen dozens of Moonees and Halleys pass through his motel, but he is unable to completely dissociate himself from the human lives that take place in the rooms he rents out. Beautifully modulated and composed, this piece is a joy to behold.
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When you look at the structure of “The Florida Project,” what appears to be episodic at first becomes something more like a statement about the repetition of ordinary lives. As a result of seeing Moonee do so many things over and over again—getting breakfast from her mother’s best friend’s restaurant, getting ice cream from a nearby establishment, hustling tourists to sell perfume, and so on—it becomes an extremely effective way to inject realism into Baker’s film. Bobby himself is shown multiple times, either typing away on his keyboard or remodeling the motel room. There is no romanticism in these lives, but there is also no sense of drudgery in them, which is a paradox. It’s a breathtaking balance between the two that really makes the film work, and it culminates in a final scene of breathtaking beauty—the kind that you won’t forget anytime soon.
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Our greatest films achieve greatness by presenting us with characters who are completely fully-realized and three-dimensional in their appearance and behavior. We have a strong sense that we know Chiron from “Moonlight” or Lee from “Manchester by the Sea,” and we are right. Moonee, Hailey, and Bobby are able to live similar lives outside of the film that is about them. When you drive past a place like the Magic Castle, it’s enough to make you want to take a slower pace and take a closer look at the people who are living their lives there. It takes a truly exceptional film to alter our perceptions of the people in our immediate vicinity. “The Florida Project” is a one-of-a-kind motion picture.
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This review was originally published on September 8, 2017, following the conclusion of the Toronto International Film Festival.
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