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'The Florida Project'

Let's go in there anyway!

By Nicholas AnthonyPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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I was on board with The Florida Project the moment I saw the poster. I mean, look at it. It looks like childhood joy mixed with every warm memory of summer anyone has ever had distilled into a poster.

The film effortlessly follows through with the promise. A profoundly humane and near perfect film about life on the edges, seen through the limitless possibilities eyes of kids. It is so brilliantly, gloriously alive; beauty coupled with sobering reality. The kids run amok because happiness is literally just around the corner, whereas the adults all navigate through a myriad of struggles just to get by. Led by a revelatory Brookylnn Prince as Moonee, the kids shine, and in a harsh world. They're petulant, funny, annoying, bored, constantly in awe, and exploring.

It's bittersweet and beautiful. Stunning in its generosity and luminous energy. There's a thrilling sense of spontaneity that filters through every frame. Images that pop and flow of a childhood view of summer. From a destructively beautiful sunset to the gaudy and colourful gift shops that the kids pass by, as if they were painted with the most deep-coloured acrylics to a rainbow arcing over the Magic Castle hotel that is the home of these fringe dwellers. All under the fatherly and caring eye of Willem Dafoe's hotel manager, Bobby.

Sean Baker, he of Tangerine fame, creates a portrait of lives that seem like they could be living across the road. It's as if Baker has turned some kind of machine that projects our fragmented, sun-dappled memories of what it was like to be a kid during summer.

There's no preachiness or saccharine patronising of the poor. They are people, first and foremost; a family of lost souls just trying to get by. The gargantuan theme parks that are off camera (until a bold finale) nevertheless seem to cast a shadow over the hotel and its denizens, as if it's constantly reaching out to grab the land and the people around it. To snuff them out.

But with these kids, that's going to be nigh on impossible. We tend to wonder when the magic of being a kid sort of disappeared. For some of us, it's a violent removal of the shields that kept the world out, or it's a gradual entrance into adulthood and we can't help but wish for what we had before, where there was no such thing as expectations or competition or the need for more—that want somewhat obscured by the fact that we're not quite sure what feeling we're after.

The Florida Project taps into that feeling. The kids are perfect. Creating and destroying their worlds. From the moment we see Moonee and co. spitting on cars to going on a cow safari or eating a tub of jam on a fallen tree, we are instantly transported to those hazy moments that we once knew; when the world was gigantic and exciting and just begging to be explored.

However, the stark reality of life intrudes constantly. Moonee's young mother, Halley (fellow amazing newcomer Bria Vinaite) is forced to do more and more questionable work just to provide for Moonee. It's a performance that is pitch perfect of a young woman who does all that she can in a system designed to knock her down, yet you know, you feel, that she does all that because of Moonee, even if it is a little wayward. In many ways, Halley is still a kid.

Which leaves Willem Dafoe's Bobby as the de-facto parent. I can't recall a more tender or moving role as the hotel manager who holds the place together. His work with the kids and Vinaite is infused with a spark that is at once paternal, friendly, a confidante, and understanding. He's like an exhausted father dealing with plenty of unruly children.

The Florida Project throws us into a beautifully realised world of a child's imagination, with a world on the margins being given a moving and soaring rendition, anchored by a multitude of stunning performances.

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About the Creator

Nicholas Anthony

Writer and nascent film-maker. I work under my Oraculum Films banner.

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