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The Florida Project: Impoverished Childhood in the Land of Magic Castles
by Sandra Olmsted
In The Florida Project, writer/director Sean Baker chronicles the lives of people struggling in the shadow of the famed Florida theme park. Baker reveals the main character, the precocious, diabolical, and charming Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), through a series of anecdotes that become a character study of how one little girl copes with poverty in her America. Of equal importance is the setting where seven-year-old Moonee and her mother, Halley (Bria Vinaite), live: The Magic Castle motel, which is as garishly painted as all the gaudy attractions surrounding Disney World. The manager of the motel, Bobby (Willem Dafoe in a stunting performance) keeps an eye on Moonee and Halley as best he can, but when Halley loses her stripping job because she won’t turn tricks, her life spirals out of control.
In some ways, Moonee and her friends, Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and Jancey (Valeria Cotto), have an idyllic childhood summer, mostly because the imaginative Moonee has developed a system to enjoy many of the things they can’t afford. However, Moonee’s pranks and misbehavior, not surprisingly, begins to escalate when Halley is pushed to extremes to pay rent. When Moonee’s increasingly daredevil fun results in a fire at abandon condo nearby, Moonee and Halley loose their best friends because Scooty (Christopher Rivera) confesses to his mother Ashley (Mela Murder), a restaurant manager clawing her way out of this strange slum. Ashley forbids Scooty to play with Moonee and ignores Halley, who is in desperate need of the help Ashley promised.
Ironically named for what Walt Disney call his second theme park during the planning stages, The Florida Project provides a glaring look at the American Dream. Being a character study, the plot is minimal; however, the story is compelling thanks to the breakout performance of Prince, the stellar performance of Dafoe, and the interesting and strange mix of characters in various stages of accepting their situations, clawing their way up, or descending further into hell. Rated R for language throughout, disturbing behavior, sexual references and some drug material and running a bit long at 115 minutes, The Florida Project, an A24 release, is worth the time and money to see and is in theaters now.
