Movie review: "The Florida Project"

THROND'S CHOICE

dir. by Sean Baker

written by Sean Baker and Chris Bergoch

A couple years ago, Sean Baker took the festival circuit by storm with his thrilling, energetic comedy-drama Tangerine, a film about a transgender sex worker getting back at her cheating pimp/boyfriend. Tangerine featured a street-level, D.I.Y. vibe: its cast was comprised entirely of non-professional actors, and it was shot on three iPhones. Baker's new film, The Florida Project, has switched to conventional film stock and features Hollywood star Willem Dafoe, but it has the same down-to-earth authenticity which marked his debut, with naturalistic acting from what's still mostly a cast of unknowns, and the same delightful sense of humour.

What's different in The Florida Project, more even than the cameras and Dafoe, is an increase in ambition. Tangerine was largely a comedy, but while the new film is still very funny, it has much more on its mind than just its subtle progressive politics. The Florida Project is an often poetic look at the shadow of decadence, a portrait of people living on the margins and both the forces and cycles which work to keep them there. Its build is a little slower than that of Tangerine, but its cumulative emotional power is much greater, and if the earlier film demonstrated Baker's promise, this new one codifies him as an auteur to keep an eye on. 

Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) is a lively six-year-old living with her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) in the Magic Castle motel just outside of Walt Disney World. Halley lives in poverty, subsisting on food from churches, as well as scraps from her friend Ashley (Mela Murder), who works at a local diner, all while struggling to sell perfume to tourists at nearby hotels. Moonee doesn't seem to mind, however, and alongside her friends Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and Dicky (Aiden Malik), she makes her own fun out of what she has, even if it's sometimes to the irritation of those around her. Complications ensue, but most of the film simply chronicles these characters inhabiting their world. 

The thing is, these characters' bad behaviour might have been a little grating were it not for the film's great sense of humour. Moonee's exploits range from irritating the motel guests to outright crimes, and Halley encourages her all the way through, but there's a natural comic timing to several of these events that compensates, and the simple confidence and edge of these characters, while not wholly endearing, at least gives them a significant amount of charisma, which is bolstered by the stunning acting talent on display here. The performances are uniformly naturalistic, and yet the characters' personalities come through, making that charisma feel authentic - Prince and Vinaite are especially good. Further, the sight of little kids trash-talking adults and using coarse language is simply something I find inherently funny, which compensates for a lot. 

More importantly, the film features moderating voices, most notably motel manager Bobby (Dafoe), who serves almost as a father-figure to the kids. He clearly doesn't like taking care of their messes, and at times threatens to kick Halley and Moonee out for their behaviour, but it becomes evident that he cares about them, and on multiple occasions he sticks up for them against outside forces. This is all underlined by an exquisitely nuanced performance from Dafoe, who disappears in his role and feels very natural alongside all of the first-timers. In the early going, it's Bobby who keeps the kids' mischief grounded, which lays the groundwork for the film to slowly unveil its hidden depths.

We only see a small handful of people across multiple hotels, and yet the Magic Castle has such a sense of place, and the character relationships are so rich with nuance, that a feeling of community creeps into the margins anyway. This world feels real and lived-in, which helps give weight to the social commentary which eventually crops up. The proximity to Disney World justifies a bright,  poppy colour palette, but it also puts the poverty at the motel in perspective, like when a tourist couple shows up and expresses disdain for the place. Over time, the social commentary becomes less subtle, but it also becomes sharper, as we slowly come to see more and more of the machinery around and behind the kids' world. 

It's only about a third of the way through when the kids' world becomes complicated, and this is primarily communicated through a series of brief conflicts which form a constant underlying tension but are never dwelt upon. These problems confirm that the film isn't celebrating Halley and Moonee's behaviour so much as empathizing with it, and while they never congeal into a tangible narrative, these issues subtly build and change Moonee's world in ways which she doesn't fully grasp the significance of, if she's even made aware of them at all. Around this point, Halley also softens, and many of the ensuing scenes emphasize her love for her daughter rather than her coarse attitude, without ever betraying the latter. 

That second half is much more powerful than the first, but it wouldn't have nearly the same effect had the film not built up Moonee's world. First, we get an exuberant glimpse of kids thriving on very little, and then that childlike perspective is problematized through the slow encroachment of the messy adult world. The film has a wealth of insight about the systems and cycles which keep people in poverty, but while those and the great characters are enough to give the film its poignancy, it's that ingenious trick of perspective - starting small and childlike and then slowly expanding to something much less simple and easy - which generates its poetry.

Poetry, poignancy, insight - these are all major reasons why The Florida Project is so great, but beneath all of that is a beating heart and a phenomenal sense of humour. This isn't some sort of dour social drama, and neither is it some dry naturalist experiment. It's just a damn good movie which blends pathos and thematic depth with surface pleasures, a film with vibrancy and life yet also the specter of decay and neglect. If it's more formally conventional than Baker's previous film, it's also more ambitious and emotionally impactful. Watch it.

9/10

+ Authentic yet charismatic performances
+ Well-sketched characters
+ Nuanced social insight
+ Strong cumulative emotional power
+ Delightfully boisterous sense of humour
- Characters take a while to warm up to

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Todd Throndson
VioletWisp

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