THE FLORIDA PROJECT
(R13, 111 mins) Directed by Sean Baker Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett
The Florida Project is set entirely in and around a run-down apartment block just across the freeway from Disney World, in Orlando, Florida.
It is one of the film’s ongoing jokes that we know that the “happiest place on Earth” is always just out of shot, unremarked and ignored by the residents of The Magic Castle apartments.
The apartments are one-room shoeboxes, the sort of places you live only if you have no other option.
Six-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) live in 323. Moonee is a stunningly bright and precocious kid with little or no respect for any adult authority. And Halley is kinda the same, a volatile, stubborn and occasionally terrifying young woman who will do anything to protect her kid. Moonee has a couple of close friends living in the same block or nearby, while Halley has a close friend – Ashley – living one floor down.
Keeping an eye on everyone is the apartment manager, played by Willem Dafoe in a performance for the ages.
This is a beautiful film. Florida’s vast skies and fondness for ultra-colourful paint schemes are a gift to Baker’s cameras. Against a procession of stunning backdrops, it unfurls as a domestic comedy and drama of rare insight and wit. Writer/director Sean Baker (Tangerine) coaxes a couple of astonishing performances out of his cast, with the child actors in particular being heartbreakingly natural and believable even as they work their way through some tough and nuanced moments.
The Florida Project is a fantastic piece of writing, a showcase for a couple of breakout performances – the last time I saw a young first-time lead actor burn down the screen in an indie picture the way Bria Vinaite does here, was Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone – and it is a film we will be hearing a lot more about as award season gets into swing.
At various times, The Florida Project reminded me of Moonlight, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Taika Waititi’s Boy. It shares with those films a rare ability to present the world from a kid’s perspective, while still telling a story that is often beyond the kid’s perception.
The Florida Project is never grim or gruelling.
It has some terrific laughs and many moments of aching tenderness. But by the time the final – perfect – scene rolls around, it will also break your heart clean in two.
An outside editor (Baker edits his own films) probably would have trimmed 10 minutes or so from the running time, and maybe that would have made the film even better. But that’s the only criticism I feel like making. I loved this picture.