THE FLORIDA PROJECT
IN 2015, New Jersey-born writer-director Sean Baker dazzled with his fifth feature, the buddy comedy Tangerine, which he shot on three handheld smartphones using non-professional actors.
The award-winning film mined humour, wit and empathy between transgender sex workers in contemporary Los Angeles, elegantly upending crude stereotypes of a neglected subculture, for whom the American dream soured a long time ago.
Baker upgrades his technology but remains defiantly on the frayed fringe of society for The Florida Project, an exuberant portrait of families living hand-tomouth in the shadow of the fairytale sparkle of Walt Disney World.
His script, co-written by Chris Bergoch, unfolds over one lazy summer, anchored by searing performances from newcomers Bria Vinaite and Brooklynn Prince as a mother and daughter, who will do anything (including cheat and steal) to keep a roof over their heads.
There are grim moments, including a suspected paedophile approaching children beside a highway and an intervention by social services that threatens to culminate in tragedy.
Yet with each body blow, the film softens the impact with earthy humour and humanity, exposing vulnerabilities beneath the potty-mouthed characters’ steely facades.
Single mother Halley (Vinaite) sells designer fragrances to wealthy theme park visitors, aided by her precocious six-year-old daughter Moonee (Prince), in order to pay for a single room at the Magic Castle Motel.
It’s a struggle to raise the rent and placate longsuffering manager Bobby Hicks (Willem Dafoe), so Halley relies on the kindness of friends and strangers including upstairs neighbour Ashley (Mela Murder), who works at a diner and sneaks waffles out of the back door.
During the day, little Moonee goes on adventures with other Magic Castle kids including Scooty (Christopher Rivera).
Their escapades drive Bobby to distraction and result in a blaze at an abandoned development nearby.
When Ashley learns that her boy Scooty was involved, she forbids him from socialising with Moonee. The two mothers come to blows and an increasingly volatile Halley resorts to desperate measures to keep her dysfunctional family together.
The Florida Project rests heavily on seven-year-old Prince and she is a natural in front of the camera. On-screen chemistry between her and Vinaite is utterly believable.
Baker draws on the garish signage and sweet shop colours of Orlando to create a playground for his pre-teen protagonists, who vandalise without consideration of the consequences.
It’s an emotionally raw and unflinching character study that collapses in the gutter, staring up at stars that don’t grant anyone’s wishes.