The Florida Project

An excellent exploration of the lives of children whose parents are not exactly the most exemplary or affluent. Moonee, the little street urchin, was often up to mischief, but who could blame her when her mother lacked many virtues and deserved a good scolding herself. I enjoyed the colorfulness of the visuals and the energy of the narrative. An excellent match for those children's mischief. However, how Brooklynn Prince acted in the title role literally took my breath away. I ate it up, especially when she struck such a heartfelt melancholic note at the end. Throughout the film, I went through a range of feelings, from the universally negative to the joyful, and I kept wondering how this was all going to end. The finale itself, however, pleasantly surprised and moved me at the same time. I would also like to mention Willem Dafoe, who played the character of the morose caretaker Bobby with protective instincts to perfection. It gave the whole story a stamp of genuine humanity. (80%) (08/08/2020)

Depicting the problems and joys of ordinary Floridians from a purple apartment building/motel somewhere around Orlando, The Florida Project is a big step forward from Tangerine thanks to the fantastic perception of life through the eyes of children. It is not just about the playfulness that they bring into this portrait of the uneasy existence of socially disadvantaged adults, but above all the director’s ability to perceive the colorful poetics of the lives of two emotionally different worlds in such a precise and coordinated way. There are a lot of award-worthy performances here: the great Willem Dafoe as a thoughtful building manager, the surprising non-actress Bria Vinaite as a troubled mother, and especially little Brooklynn Prince as the lead child character! Her tears are the culmination of the film and the most powerful moment of child acting in a long while (since Shyamalan’s Osment?). The end should be seen as a metaphor – holiday-like Florida with its beautiful beaches and amusement parks is a paradise for American children. The Florida Project is a unique and beautifully made film with a big, wildly beating heart. I considered adding a fifth star. [Cannes] (25/05/2017)

The Florida Project is based on the conflict between children’s perspective and that of adults, between two completely different worlds existing in parallel. Baker employed this conflict as the guiding element of the film’s narrative. The permeation of “adult” problems into the guileless reality of childhood creates dramatic tension, advances the plot and rhythmises the narrative. The micro-stories of adults mostly lie at the edge of interest, which corresponds to the dominant children’s point of view. However, we are sufficiently familiar with the adults’ problems to comprehend the characters’ motivations and the plot twists. ___ The stylisation of the picture also corresponds to the children’s point of view. Realistic scenes, in which the camerawork mimics the low-placed children’s view of the world in an effort to keep pace with the young actors, are interspersed with carefully composed static shots that with their colours are reminiscent of pop art. Bold colours, signs such as “Magic Castle”, “Futureland” and “Seven Dwarfs Ln.” and unusual locations transform the devastated surroundings of the amusement park into one big playground, as it is also perceived and used by the children, who have created their own magical world, which is not sustainable in the long run, and the larger the cracks that appear in it, the less the adults are able to keep their kids under the illusion that everything is going to be okay. ___ The energetic style of the film contrasts with the hopelessness of the situation in which the young female protagonist is trapped with her mother. Due to the intrusions of social drama into the magical children’s adventure, however, the film manages to avoid sentimentality, falseness and romanticisation of the characters’ misery. After all, that is not what Baker intended the film’s central them to be. He is rather particularly interested in the ability to adapt to a certain environment and the related building of one’s own magic kingdom as a means of self-preservation. ___ Instead of creating artificial dramas, Baker allows events to flow seemingly freely. However, minor misunderstandings are wrapped up in other events, separate episodes are composed in a layered form, and the story, adhering to the traditional three-act structure despite the seeming dramaturgical laxity, speeds inexorably toward the cathartic climax. The great final drama derives from a number of smaller conflicts that the narrative at least touched on previously. ___ The Florida Project manages to point out problems that need to be solved without overstating them or sugar-coating them with the small joys of life, or misusing them for emotional blackmail. This is a pleasantly matter-of-fact, compassionate and sincere approach, captivatingly magical and realistic, which, in addition to sorrow, also offers joy and arouses the desire to start doing something. 90% (28/03/2018)

I was able to overlook the complete senselessness for a long time and focused on the actors. Specifically, on Brooklynn Prince, who delivers without exaggeration the best child acting performance I have ever seen. But after a while, the noisy children, noisy adults, noisy arguments, and shouted vulgarities became too much, and I quietly suffered through most of the second half. Moreover, we hardly leave the motel complex, and the viewer can sense that they will have to wait only for small joys and greater concerns. The salvation of the script is the character of Bobby, on whom, thanks to surprisingly civilian Willem Dafoe, it is visible that he wants to help his tenants, but he suspects that for some, it's just throwing pearls before swine. However, a significant drawback for me is the fact that most of the time I couldn't get rid of thoughts about what awaits Moonee in her later years and how she might end up with a similar environment and similar mother. Even a heart of gold can spoil, and despite efforts for positive moments, these thoughts made me feel miserable. Three stars solely for Brooklynn, who, with a bit of luck, could become a real treasure. (16/01/2018)

It didn’t sit well with me how the children told the story. It felt as if I packed a camera, flew to Florida, chose the motel closest to the airport in Orlando and sat there documenting what was happening around. I understand that was the intention of the movie but it simply wasn’t interesting to me. (18/01/2019)