Sean Baker’s The Florida Project draws us into the lives of residents of the Magic Castle Hotel, living on the fringes of the Florida tourist district, just beyond the reach (and wealth) of Disney’s iconic theme park. It highlights the cruel disparity between ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’, and those that live in poverty just down the street. The wealth, affluence and manicured utopia of Disney versus the brightly coloured, unofficial motels and tourist trap gift shops. The slice-of-life approach to the storytelling invites us to delve into the experiences of 6 year old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and her best friends Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and Jancey (Valeria Cotto), as well as Moonee’s mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) and hotel manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe).
It is the summer holidays and Moonee and her friends are running wild around the hotel and local area. Our introduction sees them getting into trouble for spitting on cars, mouthing off at adults and scrounging ice cream money from passersby. Halley has no inclination to get work, preferring to hang around at the hotel, or sell knock-off perfumes to country club patrons. But this only makes her weekly struggle to make rent a lot worse. Bobby (Willem Dafoe), the hotel manager, does his best in a demanding and unappreciated job, he doesn’t take any shit and he has to enforce the rules, but he also casts a protective arm around his residents and the kids in particular
Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/the-florida-project-movie-review/
IMDB: The Florida Project
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