The Florida Project Review

I would describe The Florida Project as Lilo and Stitch if they took the sister dynamic in that movie to its realistic extreme. Both films are about a relationship between an adventurous and emotional little girl and their older, unstable female guardian that ultimately ends in tragedy. However, whereas the tragedy in Lilo and Stitch was diverged into a happy ending by typical Disney logic of "all endings must be happy endings", Florida Project almost feels like a slap in the face to that very concept and not just because it takes place right next to the Most Magical Place on Earth.



The premise is a lot more like a setup since the film doesn't have a plot or even story to speak of until the last 20 mins. Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) live in a dilapidated motel, managed by Bobby (Willem Dafoe), right next to the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. The film chronicles the steadily declining emotional and mental states of its characters until it finally collapses in a gut-punch of an ending that had me nearly in tears (it's seriously not fair when movies bring out crying children like that) and then another ending that was less good and almost ruins the movie.



What first struck me about the film aside from the fact that it imitates a run down, poverty stricken Florida motel with heart-breaking accuracy, is that the characters are all superbly well-written. They feel like real people; they have chaotic emotions, mundane struggles, they get distracted and go off topic, they tell bad jokes to ease tension, they face moral dilemmas they sometimes don't know how to deal with. What's impressive is that all of this is portrayed through the actions of the characters rather than over use of dialogue; Bobby in particular has a great, heart-warming scene that I didn't get the point of at first, but now realize that it's purpose was to show how much he cares for the children in his motel no matter how tough he might try to come across.



However, don't expect to identify or fall in love with any of these characters. This is one of those movies where everybody in the cast is either mentally unstable, emotionally immature or just sort of apathetic. In place of an audience surrogate the film pulls a slight of hand narrative by showing us the film's events through the eyes of a child, both literally and figuratively. By showing us what Moonee sees and how she interprets the world through her innocent and still unfiltered gaze it allows the audience to interpret what they see for themselves. There's no Greek chorus to tell them what to think, no secondary conscience character. It's just the audience looking at a messy situation and being expected to decide who's right and who's wrong.



However, I feel like there should've been more input on the part of the writer and director as to what he thinks is right and wrong because then we could've had some narrative depth. The entire movie is completely devoid of any overarching theme outside of a dedication to uncomfortable realism. There's plenty of symbolism and subtext within scenes, but the movie doesn't have a point or a message. I guess you could say the point is to show us how horrible life in poverty is and to spur us to charity, but I never got the sense that that was it. There are characters that show up intermittently to perform charity work, but they're seen as just part of the tenants' lives, not that big of a deal. There's also the fact that in order to make money Moonee and Halley sell perfume to people in hotel parking lots. That could've been seen as a "See, you can trust street vendors" message, but the film goes for the realistic portrayal of street salesmen in that they're lying conmen who try to swindle you out of your money by appealing to your pity, so the message is kind of lost there. I swear there's some kind of message about the evils of corporate capitalism in there because in every other shot you can see an advertisement for a restaurant or other business or a commercial playing in the background. I'm not sure how that ties into the events of the film, however, so I'll discard that for now.



While the film might be thematically empty (or at least confused), the director and crew should be commemorated on excellently it was made. The costumes are all appropriately trashy and grimy and the neon color scheme adds to the trashy, hot, muggy, hip-hop infused atmosphere. The shots are well composed and focused, subtly leading the viewers eye to what the director wants them to focus on. The sound editing is really realistic, expertly weaving in the mundane noises of life like cars driving by or a rattling vent into the background of each scene. It makes for a very engrossing experience that helps draw the viewer into the world of the film. The performances are spectacular all around. Dafoe may have been the one who got the Oscar nomination (and he should totally win it by the way), but it's Brooklynn Prince who's the real surprise. She is so natural in how she delivers her dialogue that you could swear that you're not watching an actress and are instead being shown the recorded daily routine of a very spunky young girl.



The screenplay, by the way, should've been nominated for an Oscar this year and it should've won. It's some of the most realistic dialogue I've ever heard in a film. They really nailed how kids talk in real life, which is extremely difficult to do; they're funny, they're over-dramatic, sometimes they just won't talk to people who are trying to talk to them, they yell at each other, they get distracted and focus on something else in the middle of a sentence. It's the first time I felt like I wasn't watching good child actors, but that I was actually watching a group of children on screen. The dialogue for the other characters are stellar as well and it always fits the personality that's been established. If they're prone to anger they swear a lot. If they're conniving you're constantly aware that they mean something completely different to what they're saying. It's also great how the dialogue contains little vocal hiccups, like somebody starting a sentence with an "um" or "uh" or the characters backtracking a statement to make their thoughts more clear.



The Florida Project is a messy movie, lacking any structure or cohesive theme, but it's an extremely well-made emotional rollercoaster driven to greatness by powerful performances and rock solid writing. If you feel obligated to watch just one of the Best Picture Nominees this year you could certainly do a lot worse than this one.