Film: The Florida Project

In The Florida Project, we meet Halley and her six-year-old daughter Moonee, who live a tenuous existence just outside the gates of Disney World, which is often called “The Happiest Place on Earth”. The contrast between this fantasy world of happiness and Halley’s real life of poverty and desperation, is stark.

The film takes place over the summer break. Halley is unemployed and struggles to pay her weekly rent for the motel room at The Magic Castle. She does pretty much anything to keep a roof over her head – from begging and stealing theme park entry passes to scamming people and selling cheap perfume to rich tourists. She knows that if she is not able to pay the rent, she will be out on the street.

At the same time, her precocious daughter Moonee and her friends Dicky, Jancey, and Scooty run amok in the motel, mostly unsupervised, having adventures and finding joy in each other. There is boundless energy and childlike enthusiasm in everything they do, and Moonee is seemingly unaware of the desperation around her. But as the story develops, we see the loss of innocence that poverty forces upon children.

While watching the film, you should pay special attention to the acting performances. Director Sean Baker has made it his trademark to use new talents in his films, and with the exception of veteran actor Willem Dafoe, who plays the hotel manager Bobby, nearly the entire cast is made up of first-time or inexperienced actors. 23-year-old Bria Vinaite (Halley), five-year-old Valeria Cotto (Jancey) and eight-year-old Christopher Rivera (Scooty) are all new to the game. Seven-year-old Brooklynn Prince, who plays Moonee, is perhaps the most experienced, having done a few commercials earlier.

The Florida Project premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and has since received praise for Sean Baker’s directing and the performances, particularly of Brooklynn Prince and Willem Dafoe. It has won a number of awards and was also chosen by both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of the year.