Share on Twitter. The Florida Project review: a happy film about an ugly world Sean Baker’s energetic, candy-coloured follow-up to Tangerine traces a fiery six-year-old girl’s progress through the rundown motels housing poor families in the shadow of Disney World. That is what Sean Baker does expertly with his film The Florida Project. Baker very purposefully introduces us to his child protagonists first, best friends Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and Scooty (Christopher Rivera). It’s enough to make you want to slow down the next time you pass a place like the Magic Castle and look more closely at the lives unfolding there. The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors Fortnight section on May 22, 2017. Steven Spielberg once said: “If you over-rehearse kids, you risk a bad case of the cutes.” But these kids don’t look cute or over-rehearsed or rehearsed at all; they look as if everything they do and every word that comes out of their mouths is unscripted and real. “The Florida Project” is directed by Sean Baker, who caused a stir with “Tangerine” (2015), which was shot entirely on iPhones. This review was originally published from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017. We see Moonee do so many things multiple times—get breakfast from her mother’s best friend’s restaurant, get ice cream from a nearby establishment, hustle tourists to sell perfume, etc.—and it becomes a very effective way to add realism to Baker’s film. In an age when reality is more scripted than a Hollywood Blockbuster it is hard to have a true insight into some peoples dark reality. Share on Facebook . It is an all-too-common story of a single mother and her daughter on the edge of the social ladder, but it is told in a way that embraces its details instead of trying to achieve some sort of universal statement. He recognizes that Moonee is kind of a unique kid, the sort who can get a kick out of making noises into an oscillating fan or brushing her doll’s hair in the tub, but he never makes her into a precocious Hollywood cliche of the wide-eyed innocent. The Florida Project immerses us in more stories that too often get excluded from movies. Even Bobby is shown pecking away at his keyboard or remodeling the motel multiple times. They wander from dawn to dusk and have fun. They’re running to a neighboring motel so they can spit on a car from the balcony above. The Florida Project kicks off with what feels like a wake-up call at summer camp, and is easily the most infectious opening moment of this year’s Cannes so far. I’ve already written once about The Florida Project on this site. When Moonee takes Jancey on a day-trip adventure, the afternoon is almost spoiled by rain—but then … for language throughout, disturbing behavior, sexual references and some drug material, Breaking Bread on the 25th Anniversary of Big Night, ABC’s Rebel Wastes Talent on Fictional Version of the Erin Brockovich Legacy. Each winner receives publication in The Florida Review and $1,000 (upon publication). But then they break into some abandoned houses, and things go wrong for the children, and then the adults. Jump to Comments. The Florida Project is a gritty take on the elusivity and hollowness of the American dream. Info. TFP delves into the Baker makes movies about people whose stories are not oft told and whose lives many people do not care about. The Florida Project ist ein US-amerikanisches Filmdrama von Sean Baker, das am 22. Shopping. She knows more than most adults around her. THE FLORIDA PROJECT focuses on a trio of young, largely unsupervised kids whose families live in cheap motels just minutes away from Walt Disney World, outside Orlando. In his own grownup role, Willem Dafoe gives a performance of quiet excellence and integrity. Although Florida’s Disneyland seems like the perfect playland, right next door many face harsh realities. A movie review by James Berardinelli Despite a seemingly straightforward slice-of-life storyline, The Florida Project achieves something rare and magical: presenting existence from the perspective of a young child while, at the same time, providing enough “clues” that viewers are able to decipher what’s really going on. It earns its laughs, gasps and tears honestly, almost always keeping the kids distanced from unsavory situations. Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) is a fearless six-year-old girl whose mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) has failed to get work waitressing or lapdancing and is now trying to sell knock-off perfume to people coming in and out of golf resorts. But she wants to have fun everyday. It’s a film of abstractions, of hazy days and not much to do and skates the line of objectifying the underclass. Lionsgate released the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and download. The Florida Project Review. And the tonal balancing act of “The Florida Project” is the main thing that makes it so breathtaking. It is a glorious film in which warmth and compassion win out over miserabilism or irony, painted in bright blocks of sunlit colour like a child’s storybook and often happening in those electrically charged magic-hour urban sunsets that the director Sean Baker also gave us in his zero-budget breakthrough Tangerine. 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