The Florida Project - Living in the Shadows
I have said before that I am not a fan of the 'social realist' genre, I never have been as I find there are so many films that are so deeply obsessed with their own naturalism that they feel cold and distant. A lot of films in this genre tend to lay back and depict as terrible situation and never develop a thought process beyond 'this is bad someone should do something about this'. 'The Florida Project' takes this basic idea and creates this beautifully layered exploration of a struggling family in a system working against them, it manages to contain all these tropes and ideas of a social realist film yet elevates them to feel empathetic, human and incredibly angry. I revisited this film whilst in quarantine and I think it might be one of my favourite films of the decade, it is confident and incredibly well thought through without feeling pretentious misguided or problematic. There is a little part of me that feels a bit uncomfortable with this genre, often there will be a million-dollar company and rich director depicting people in genuinely terrible situations in a manipulative and uncomfortable way. Whilst Sean Baker manages to put an empathetic and interesting narrative first and wants you to understand and empathise these characters whilst never looking down at them or putting them in a patronising perspective. It just screams authenticity, pointing out the problems in a system yet showcasing the importance of love, friendship and togetherness, I never felt Baker's hand whilst watching the film, at no point did I feel like I was being shown a PSA instead it feels like a film that has a story to tell with rich characters that elevate Baker's message and thought process. Spoilers ahead.
There's a lot of work that goes into a film centred almost exclusively around children, the old adage 'dont work with animals or children' is a dismissive but reasonable thought that has terrified filmmakers for years. This is a brilliant example of how to work with children in film, Baker knows he can't really control their attention all the time so he lets them just act like children. I don't think I have ever seen a more realistic portrayal of what it is like to be this age, to be messy and consistently chasing that next piece of excitement is something the film broadcasts so well. Moonee, Scotty, Dickey and Jancey are incredible, they just nail exactly how children act down to a tee, they are consistently responding and imitating the world around them and building themselves every second. I just adore how perfect these children are, at no point did I not believe them, the key is that they aren't really acting, instead they are playing to each other consistently and just acting like themselves. A lot of child actors try too hard to act, which comes off as unnatural and jarring, but Baker almost just lets the children improvise and live in this world as they are. Because of this, we get a better sense of this world and characters as our main surrogates are living authentically and realistically, I adore how easily this world is established through the lens of these kids playing. The film consists of a series of mostly unconnected sequences playing over the summer at this motel, but most of what we see is vignettes of these kids playing and the consequences of the world around them, from this a narrative bubbles underneath revolving around Moonee's mother Halley. We dont explicitly spend much time with Halley on her own, instead, her actions are almost always seen through the lense of Moonee and their relationship. It would be far too easy to make an emotional story that just focuses on Halley's troubles but Baker works hard to make us empathise with the children as his primary perspective and letting Halley's arc hit harder by exploring the impact on Moonee.
'The Florida Project' is only as effective due to how well thought through everything is. We never really see anything but Moonee's perspective, the narrative almost happens completely behind her, Halley's struggles aren't spelt out to us instead offered to us through fleeting moments of dialogue that Moonee overhears. This requires a lot from Brooklynn Prince who is just wonderful in this role, she somehow manages to do an incredible job of being so obviously a character moulded from this environment, yet still being a child that everyone can sympathise with. She often just imitates the world around her and her mother's actions without really understanding them, she will shout out and act aggressively without really knowing why but because that is how Halley acts. This is genuinely soul-crushing as Bria Vinaite does amazing work to make Halley a clear portrayal of bad parenting but with understandable and empathetic reasons for her actions. She is naive, defensive and impulsive because she has no other option, often just chasing whatever makes her happy to the point of self-destruction, she cares deeply about Moonee but doesn't understand how to help her except mould her into a version of herself. It creates this fascinating idea of being trapped in one area, Halley is essentially alone, clearly young and in an environment where she cant grow up, so naturally, Moonee follows suit. Our two protagonists care deeply about each other, they respond and react realistically and their happiness together, whilst subjectively unhealthy on occasion, is genuine and full of worth. I love how a repeated motif is Halley showing her love by letting Moonee indulge in materialistic goods, creating these beautiful scenes as they bond over food, toys and simple luxuries yet the one occasion they feel truly authentically happy is when they just go out and play in the rain and enjoy the time they spend together. I adore this relationship, I think it is so well realised and so emotionally evocative without ever feeling manipulative or unrealistic, there is something so impressive with how Baker frames these two characters.
And on top of this wonderful relationship, we have professional scene-stealer Willem Dafoe as the landlord Bobby. Dafoe is one of my favourite actors of all time and this might be one of my favourite roles of his, he often plays cartoonish villains but here he proves that he can create one of the most friendly and understanding people in the film to perfection. I love how we essentially consistently see Bobby appear as the children's friend, he is the closest thing to order this Motel has and whilst he often has to maintain order, the children empathise and understand him by his kindness and leniency. He is not perfect in any way, he cares deeply about the people who live in his Motel and his struggle between trying to help them and look after himself is wonderfully well done. I like how we see this community and the man 'in charge' is clearly not in power, he does what he does out of necessity and there are so many layers above him that we only briefly see that put him in this situation. He just fills me with such happiness, seeing how he deals with the threats of his establishment with authority and how he treats the guests with understanding and consistent empathy, some of my favourite scenes are when he gets to interact with Moonee. It would be easy to create a snivelling villain that we can blame for these people's situations but instead, Baker works almost completely on implication before showcasing his perspective brutally in those closing moments. The film almost presumes you understand that Florida is the home to Disneyland and the film consistently teases this idea of 'Disney's shadow'. The buildings are painted in these distracting bright colours, with names like 'magical kingdom', most shots outside of the motel contain at least one advert or product being shoved in your face, the architecture is distractingly fake and it creates this wonderful juxtaposition between what we are seeing and the world around them.
There is a very clear angry message Baker is putting across. He is blaming a system but he can't really offer a solution, I dont think anyone can and Baker doesn't want to distract from the human narrative to waste time overexplaining his point. This community lives in the shadow of a company that earns billions daily from wealthy tourists visiting this 'dreamland' whilst the people who need the help are stuck living in constant reminders of this fact. It feels cruel and disgusting to watch people suffer in technicolour advertisements for something they can never do and Baker consistently draws the audience's attention to the fact that there is so much wealth around this poverty. Halley has to upsell perfume in order to survive, it is practically begging but these tourists and companies dont seem to even care about her position. Almost any scene where a television is playing it is an advert, the sound design is wonderful as it becomes this sickening motif as these people stare at reminders of materialistic goods when they are struggling to even eat. Repeatedly a helicopter lands and takes off, I think this is meant to be people going on helicopter tours of Disneyland, but it becomes this disorientating motif as it consistently reminds these people of something they cant have. I love moments where Halley and Moonee almost instinctively swear at the helicopter, Halley because she is angry at these people's wealth and Moonee doesn't understand why but just enjoys having fun with her mum. Moonee's constant obsession with materialistic good makes sense when you see how much she is advertised to and consistently reminded she can't have, it is depressing and vile to see her be manipulated by this world around her. Yet I also really like the small quiet moments with Moonee such as the scene where she takes Jancey to see some cows and they both share a moment enjoying nature and pure adventure, it gives a small glimmer of hope and character.
I was surprised to find out that the ending of the film is really quite divisive. I personally love it, I think for such a naturalistic film it really demonstrates the power of subversion and finishes the film perfectly. I can understand that it is unsatisfying, Halley being a prostitute is consistently hinted at in the third act and it tonally gets darker and darker before realistically showing a traumatising ending with a heartbreaking lack of hope. The last 15 minutes is stressful and extremely upsetting but I adore how it allows these characters and performers to really prove themselves, we dont get a happy ending or any ending to their stories but it does thematically have a really strong emotional point. Seeing Halley building up her anger and distraught as her daughter is taken away from her is tough to watch and Vinaite pulls this off wonderfully. Dafoe breaks my heart every time as he portrays just how powerless and desperate his situation is, watching as Bobby can't help these people he cares about is tough and emotional. And then Moonee runs away, to her only friend and Prince proves herself as an insanely impressive actor, I said earlier that they dont really have to act but my god does Prince tear my heart into pieces as she sobs to the person she loves the most. Then the film breaks tradition, Baker switches to digital and the footage is sped up to a disorientating level with this beautiful score that comes out of nowhere as these two children escape into the 'dreamland' they have been living in the shadow of. It is a beautiful heartbreaking moment of escapist bliss and I can't make it through without shedding a tear, it is sudden and perhaps disorientating but I really appreciate how Baker pulls the curtain back and shows the shadow in plain sight. They have no other ambition in their life, the biggest adventure and happiest place on the planet is just out of reach and here it is the only place they can hide in when faced with real life. Genuinely heartbreaking, beautifully done and one of my favourite endings to a film in recent memory.
I had a lot more thoughts on this film than I realised. I definitely think it is such an impressive piece of cinema and really treasure how effective and beautiful it is. Thanks for reading!