Direction: Sean
Baker; Cast: Willem Dafoe, Brooklyn
Prince, Bria Vinaite; Story: Screenplay: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch; Producer: Sean
Baker, Chris Bergoch, et al; Music: Lorne Balfe; Editing: Sean Baker; Genre: Drama;
Distributor: A24 Running Time: 111
minutes;
Technical
assessment: 4
Moral assessment: 3.5
CINEMA rating: V14
The Florida
Project is not your typical three-act Blockbuster Hollywood film. Instead it
brings our focus to shift from the famous tourist attraction to the peripheries
where poverty is painfully in existence. Six year old Moony (Prince) and her
mother Haley (Vinaite) are tenants of the Magic Castle Motel. Haley makes ends
meet by hawking rich Disney customers, stealing Disney ticket and selling
whatever she can, including her personal services. Moony spends her days with another
child tenant Scooty (Rivera) and their new friend Jancey (Cotto). They engage
in behavior too obnoxious to be cute. Bobby (Dafoe), the tired hotel manager is
extremely annoyed by but is protective of the children, especially after
realizing Haley is into prostitution. Desperate, Haley tries to borrow money
from Ashley, Scooty’s mother, but eventually beats her to pulp when the latter
mocks her. This causes the Children’s Welfare to investigate Haley and decide
to bring Moony to a foster home while her mother is under investigation. Moony,
realizing she will be taken away from her mother, breaks down and runs away
with Jancey and enter the Magic Kingdom Park inside Disney World.
The film works
because of the creative decision to have the story told from the innocent
perspective of the children involved. The first third introduces you to children
so annoying and misbehaved that you feel it would be an unbearable film. But
gradually, you begin to understand why they are how they are. Their parents,
their environment and their lifestyle molds them. But beneath the compelling
images, the film unfolds the naivete of the children making them charming and
likeable all throughout. Baker achieves
the most admirable feat—not only unquestionably gaining the sympathy of the
audience for his characters but also seeing, learning about, and understanding
the world through their eyes. For instance, the attempt of Haley to get into
online pornography using her daughter would have been sickening. But we were
experiencing it like Mooney—“just another selfie day with mom”, and the
tug-of-war between what the audience knew and what the audience felt made the
scene very powerful. Another example is the directorial decision to shoot
Ashley beating Haley. Audience never see the violence but felt it all the more
because it was shot blurred behind Ashley’s son who watched it all throughout.
The subtleties of the film is its gem. This is a film whose effect creeps in so
slowly that a less attentive viewer might think nothing much is happening. But
those who patiently wait will realize every little scene is necessary to
appreciate the characters—and eventually find a piece of you in them. The
brilliant performances from Dafoe, Prince and Vinaite, the juxtaposition of
Disneyland with the children’s motel home complemented by the decision to use
diegetic sound brings us a world that is hauntingly real and inspiring.
We are all
products of our surroundings and children are most vulnerable to the risks and
hazards of a negative environment. We often complain that a person seems to
have lost his graces but sometime we fail to realize that his actions are
reaction to how the world presents itself to him. An informercial popularized
the saying, “Ang maling gawa ay nagiging tama sa bata kapag ginagawa ng
nakatatanda” (In the eyes of a child, a wrong doing becomes right if done by an
elder). Where do children get their moral or their attitude? We lay down rules
for them, but in a sweep of a hand, break the rules when it is to our
advantage. Why would we reprimand them when they do the same? The movie
presents the disturbing contrast of the socio-economic discrepancies even in
the 3rd world but more importantly shows us the repercussions of being
an irresponsible adult. (JMF)
