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The Florida Project (2017), R, ★★★1/2


I do not personally address my past stories or my life on the blog but this is a relevant subject because of this movie. Florida is like a second home to me because I have been there at least ten times ever since I was a very young kid going to every park in Disney World to even reaching that Southern Most point of Florida which is a long drive. Wow! Anyway, almost every one of those trips were fun and memorable but I cannot place my experiences with the stories going around in this movie because like the movie, The Descendants, even if you are spending on a vacation in paradise or relaxation, the residents are still working people. As the adults are struggling to make ends meet, we observe the children's journey throughout Florida underneath a blazing sun that you slowly grow to appreciate the characters and also empathize for the characters after the movie is over. It is a very good movie.

Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), a 6-year old girl, is living with her reckless mother, Halley (Bria Vinaite) in a run-down motel at the Magic Castle as she spends time with her friends, Dicky and Scooty (Aiden Malik and Christopher Rivera), roaming around the motel without supervision and have fun like spitting at a car from the second floor balcony. Stacy (Josie Olivo), the owner of the car, gets furious and reprimands them and later, they are ordered to go clean up the car. Halley and Moonee are having a hard time because they are poor because Halley was fired from her stripping job as Scooty and his mother, Ashley (Mela Murder), hooks them up with free food from her restaurant job.

On the next day, Moonee and Scooty go out to play and invite Stacy's grand-daughter, Jancey (Valeria Cotto) to come play since Dicky is grounded as they walk across the strip to ask for change to get a single ice cream cone for all three of them to share. The kids spend time causing mischief like turning off the motel's power and Bobby (Willem Dafoe), the manager, has to go back to the maintenance room and turn it back on. As Moonee is forbidden to play with the other kids, Halley brings her along to get some money as Halley sells perfume, discount tickets and herself to people.


I really like this movie even though it is going to be a while since I will watch it again, maybe, when it is on streaming services. You see two different chapters in Florida that are both entertaining and depressing. There are moments of magic throughout the movie, however, director Sean Baker does not alleviate you from the bleak reality of an unfit mother trying to take care of her child by committing some ill-advised actions that could get her arrested and have Moonee taken away from her. But, you are rooting for Moonee to have a rosy future and she is the eyes of the audience that looks at everything from perspective, magical or scary.

The performances are exceptional. Brooklynn Prince is an intelligent, energetic but dishonest little girl who tries to get her way. But, it is understandable as Moonee plays like a realistic child in the poor projects not a one-dimensional cute kid. Bria Vinaite gives a strong performance as a mother who needs to get herself together by not only take care of Moonee but herself. Is a good mother suppose to sell herself by inviting men to her hotel room and putting her child in a bathroom door by closing her ears, not listening to what is going next door? Willem Dafoe in a supporting role gives one of his best performances as a tired manager trying to solve every problem in the motel but is sort of labeled as a father figure to the children. If a nomination is deserved, it is Dafoe's performance that should get recognition.

Director Sean Baker has made a rather efficient movie with Tangerine. I liked his approach to this movie and to his characters in the movie. The movie starts as a fantasy that is next to the magical place on Earth, Walt Disney World, as you see fireworks close from the hotel. But, the movie grows dark as the story progresses as consequences arise from some characters' actions and becomes an absorbing and unsentimental observation to life that is quite essential to what is going on in some places in America because many low-class people are suffering like Halley and Moonee and worse.

I usually do not penalize a movie with a criticism dedicated to five minutes of the movie but the ending felt like an alternate ending that does not seem to work even though it tries to become uplifting but it finishes with a question of "What is that?". Life goes on, yes, but I do not like how it ended. Then, there are a few moments of emptiness that felt a bit filler to stretch on the time, however, The Florida Project is an experience of giving us a mosaic of the low-life, both fantastical and realistic, and stretching that narrative to something more grand.

***1/2


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