Director: Sean Baker
By Alex Watson
A heartbreaking and raw look at the playfulness and naivety of youth, Sean Baker's The Florida Project is bound to break hearts. Previously gathering huge acclaim for his iPhone shot movie Tangerine, Baker emerges as a real indie talent. Set in Orlando, Florida in the shadow of Disneyland, this is one place where dreams and lives go to rot. Willem Dafoe and six-year-old actress Brooklynn Kimberley Prince give performances that will no doubt be given consideration come awards season.
In the run-down Magic Castle Motel, six-year-old Mooney (Brooklynn Kimberly Prince) is a talkative and troublemaking girl who lives with her heavily tattoed and foul-mouthed mother Hailey (Bria Vinaite). Alongside her friends Scootey (Christopher Rivera) and later Jancey (Valeria Cotto), they spend their days getting up to all kinds of mischief. Motel manager Bobby (William Dafoe) is continually concerned about the pair, particularly when it becomes clear Hailey might be up to suspicious activity.
From the very first frame of The Florida Project, there is a grimy yet carefree approach. When we meet Mooney and Scootey, they are cheerfully spitting off the side of a rail onto another person's car below. When caught in the act, they gleefully spirit away. When confronted about her daughter's behaviour, Hailey can only reply with a barely contained smirk. Mooney is a girl full of energy but she is also a bundle of trouble. Living in a roadside motel that looks like a welfare version of the Grand Budapest Hotel, there are numerous abandoned buildings to cause havoc and food places where they scrounge money off locals. Despite her surroundings and obvious poverty, the little girl finds joy and wonder all around. Hailey, on the other hand, is a ticking time bomb. Having a fast mouth and no filter, her aggressive style frequently gets them into trouble. Fired as from her last job, she now seeks to come up with rent money every month. Desperate she hustles and pleads tourists at nicer hotels to buy her knockoff perfume and indulges in some other more... illicit methods.
The side story of Bobby is one that gives the movie a more nurturing side. A man with a calm and rational approach to life, Bobby has a hard time keeping up appearances at this decaying motel. One of the few people to show Hailey any ounce of kindness, Bobby is the father figure Mooney desperately needs. He also a protector of the weak, in one scene he at first kindly then furiously sees off an old paedophile who approaches some kids. The struggles of the lower class is the most obvious theme of Baker's movie. Hailey is a woman barely getting by and there are no jobs on offer. Even people like the jaded cab driver who drives a bickering couple to the motel is struggling to get paid. Mooney however, thrives in her environment but her lack of discipline soon causes issues. Hailey throughout makes no attempt to correct or punish her daughter and this causes a huge strain with her only friend Ashley (Mela Murder).
Inevitably The Florida Project descends into a heartbreak and tragedy in its final act. All the way you sense that something terrible is building, but we know we are powerless to stop it. Baker includes some moments of pure joy and beauty, one particular scene we see Hailey and Mooney happily messing around during a rainstorm. In this one moment you feel the bond between mother and daughter and it stings us to the core. As a person, her mother is more of a handful than her daughter. But you know her love for Mooney is absolute and she strives to keep a roof over their head no matter what. Bobby is also a man with his own issues as he is regularly forced to evict troublemakers and has a strained relationship with his own son (Caleb Landry Jones). Baker stretches our emotions to the maximum- although the final scene of the movie will draw a more divisive response.
Willem Dafoe gives one of the finest performances of his career as Bobby. One of the movie's more caring figures, Dafoe injects a great deal of warmth into this picture. Young Brooklynn Kimberly Prince is the standout performer as Mooney. A real force of nature on screen, this kid is both extremely sassy but also so adorable and sweet. Prince projects the movies childlike innocence and seeing the world through Mooney's eye is both fascinating and devastating at the same point. Bria Vinaite is also magnificently as the grenade gobbed Hailey. Discovered by Baker on social media, this actress is like a hurricane of destruction throughout. Her performance is one that is wonderfully natural and feels almost like she is a subject of a documentary than a feature film star.
The Florida Project is one of those indie efforts that really knocks you off your feet. Sean Baker is a real talent to watch and we wait for his next movie in anticipation.
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