Life on the margins – and director Sean Baker immerses us in the everyday of six year-old Moonee and her friends.
Newcomer Brooklynn Prince is sensational as the street-savvy kid smart-arsing her way round the run-down motel blocks on the outskirts of Disneyland. Heavily-tattooed mom Bria Vinaite hustles cheap perfume, knock-off Disney passes and, eventually, herself to make ends meet. As motel-manager, Willem Dafoe can only look-on with a sense of powerless hopelessness.
Baker gives us magic in the mundane, a voyeuristic experience of brattish behaviour (by adults and children alike) that highlights the cycle of poverty and crime. The Florida Project unfolds quietly in a series of non-judgemental, semi-observational vignettes that focus on character rather than didactic commentary. The result is warm, humorous but ultimately tragic.
Nominated for 1 Oscar in 2018 (supporting actor – Willem Dafoe)
Rating: 80%
Director: Sean Baker (Tangerine, Starlet)
Writer: Sean Baker (Tangerine, Starlet), Chris Bergoch (Tangerine, Starlet)
Main cast: Brooklynn Prince, Willem Dafoe (Spider Man, John Wick), Bria Vinaite
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