Dir. Sean Baker (2017)
Rated R The Florida Project is about a little girl named Moonee and her friends growing up below the poverty line in Orlando, or the projects of Florida. She lives with her mom, Halley, in a cheap motel called Dream Land on a strip in the city near Disneyland. This movie follows Moonee and the other kids that live near her on the motel strip and their life. There are a lot of hardships that happen in Moonee and her mom's life, but these go unnoticed by the child because of her innocence. As far as Moonee knows, she lives a great life with little discipline and plays all day, because living at a motel is all she has ever known. With the guidance of the motel manager, Bobby (William Dafoe), who acts more as a parent to Moonee than her mom does, she lives a carefree and happy life in the midst of the cycle of poverty. This movie was really touching but sad. It gives a raw and different outlook on poverty than any other movie I've seen, and I think this is because it is from a child's point of view. Moonee has lived in poverty all her life, and doesn't know any difference. She thinks doing to the back doors of restaurants to steal food and leaving selling perfume on the streets with her mom is normal. She doesn't pay any mind when they have to leave their motel room for one day every month and stay somewhere else so that they are not declaring residency there. She runs around with her friends Scooty and Jancey all day, asking for change from passersby to buy one ice cream cone to share between three of the children. Through the movie, the viewer watches Moonee do and witness heartbreaking things that you would never want your kid to go through, but it's not heartbreaking for her. Her mother, Halley, is present in Moonee's life and works hard to make sure that they have a roof over their head, no matter what that work may be. As the movie goes on, Halley gets worse and worse, and so does Moonee's safety, though this is unknown to her. She makes Moonee take long baths while she welcomes strange men into the home to make money for her and her daughter. It comes to the point where other parents in the motel don't allow their children to play with Moonee, because they are concerned with what Halley is doing. While all of this is happening, Moonee lives in a dream like world, playing and causing mischief all day. SPOILERS: as the movie progresses and Halley becomes a prostitute to provide for her daughter, child services are called. Bobby questions Moonee's safety in the motel, but Moonee doesn't suspect anything. When Bobby collects video footage of nine different men coming into Halley and Moonee's room on different days, as well as proof of Halley stealing from one of those men, the decision is made for Moonee to be taken away from her mother. This is a heartbreaking scene, especially because Moonee doesn't know what is going on at first. When she does, she runs away and finds her friend Jancey, and the movie ends with the two little girls running away from the motels and into Disneyland. The movie is interesting because Moonee and all her friends and cloaked in a layer of protection, that being their own innocence and optimism. She never really sees or understands what is going on with her mom or how poor they really are. The ending of the two girls escaping to Disneyland portrays just that: even when life has reached a breaking point, the children are protected from their harsh reality. This movie is unique in that it depicts poverty in a euphoric sense, but it doesn't hide anything from the viewer. As dreamy as the movie is, it tells the harsh and raw truth about living in the projects as well.
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AuthorCasey Land Archives
January 2018
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