The Florida Project

MOVIE #1,647 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 05.20.24 𝘚𝘌𝘈𝘕 𝘉𝘈𝘒𝘌𝘙: 𝘋𝘐𝘙𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘖𝘙 𝘍𝘖𝘊𝘜𝘚 This hits differently after my recent family trip to Orlando NGL! Obviously, the backdrop of Disney, various theme park and gaudy capitalist allusions are in the foreground, but it’s the menacing helicopters and lurking promise of violence that really stood out to me this viewing. Going into this focus I felt that this had a good chance of coming out as the #1 film, but — while it’s still excellent (a HIGH 9/10) — I just feel like Tangerine and Red Rocket are more complete films that have a bit more flow to them. Nevertheless, this will go down as one of the great, underrated and understated Dafoe performances. This is the kids’ story but he provides the heart, refusing to give up on people in a world where we're taught that they're trash from getgo.

He gets nothing out of these relationships aside from some solace that he’s connecting on a human level which he lacks with his son (Caleb Landry Jones in a brief but equally restrained and raw role).

Of the ending: the change in fidelity (shot on an iPhone vs. 35mm) was obviously for logistical reasons, but that choice clearly parallels thematically as well. To me — and Baker has more or less said this — it reads as pure fantasy. This kid (and all the kids like her) are doomed, but they’ll still find some peace now and again through their imagination. In some ways, this is the bleakest end possible: the only chance for a better life is in your fleeting dreams. But I think we can all relate to that on some level as well.

---

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,646 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,648 ⫸

---

The Florida Project is a 2017 American drama film directed by Sean Baker and written by Baker and Chris Bergoch. Starring Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince, and Willem Dafoe, with Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, and Caleb Landry Jones in supporting roles, it was many of the cast members' first film appearance. The slice of life plot focuses on the summertime adventures of a six-year-old girl who lives with her unemployed single mother in a budget motel in Kissimmee, Florida. Their struggle to make ends meet and stave off homelessness takes place in a surreal environment dominated by the nearby Walt Disney World, which was code-named "The Florida Project" during its planning stages. It juxtaposes this with the local residents' less glamorous day-to-day lives and the children's joyful adventures as they explore and make the most of their surroundings while remaining blissfully ignorant of the hardships their adult caretakers face. It was released on May 22, 2017.