The Florida Project is not a movie for everyone. Case in point: I utterly adored this movie, my movie companion, not so much. My companion wanted a movie with a more traditional story arc with a defined beginning and end. He complained as the movie progressed, he did not see “the point.” But to find that in The Florida Project, you must see it; it won’t be dropped in your lap. I saw it. And I loved it.
We originally planned to see a mainstream movie (“filled with an all-star cast!”), but it was sold out (at a tiny theater). So with fate upon me, and freshly back in the States after over two weeks away, not having studied films for the fall and winter, but having at least barely looked at the movie listings at the other locally-owned theater, I jumped at the chance to suggest an alternate movie that was, as I so enjoy, a bit of an alternative movie.
The Florida Project is, to me, one of those “slice of life” movies. And it is raw in its honesty about that life. The film showcases the summer of six-year-old Moonee as she finds ways to spend time with her friends and as she, without awareness given that she’s but six, is witness as her mother’s life devolves. This slice, though, is hard to swallow. The film showcases the lives we often would rather not think of: the life of the struggling poor, including the ones who are getting by and the ones whose actions eventually lead to disaster.
The film focuses mostly on Moonee and what her life entails as she spends her summer days and nights living the life she knows. But she is six. And she spends time with friends. Often, the camera simply follows these youngsters about, giving us action and dialogue rarely featured in a film. Thus, if you’re uncomfortable with the squeals of six-year-old girls, you might tire quickly of watching these little ones play, imagine, delight, and create mischief. I did not. I found it refreshing and charming and a genuinely beautiful focus on being a little girl.
But it wasn’t all charm. Moonee and her mother are among the long-term residents of an older otherwise-forgotten Orlando area motel. Two such properties are featured in the film: Futureland and Magic Castle. Yes, these were probably places that were a much bigger deal back in their day, back in those earlier days of Disney World. (The theater where we saw the movie, before the film began, played the promo piece created by Disney to promote The Florida Project, an early name for Disney World.) But these properties now are not places for nightly or weekend rentals. Laundry hangs on the railings. Resident children run around unsupervised, and suspect goings-on occur on a regular basis. These are places where someone who cannot manage a rental deposit lives. These are the places where someone who often does not have more cash on hand than enough to pay for one week in a single room lives. These are the places that we ignore as we drive by, pretending that level of poverty isn’t under our own noses.
The movie is not, however told only from Moonee’s perspective. We also see how Bobby (Willem Defoe), the motel manager, watches these lives as well. We see his frustration usually erased by his care and compassion. And we see his protective nature over not only these running-amok children (one might imagine him calling them urchins) but also over his job, thus, the motel, even when he struggles with balancing the oversight of the owners with his gentle nature.
This story beyond fun summer days is hard to watch. After all, who lives in a motel with small children? These are families on the edge of loss. On an uplifting side, we see the devotion these parents have and just how hard they work to make sure they feed and love those kids. But we also see the failures. And we see how these families can be torn apart and how they can fall apart.
I’ve friends who have opened their homes to foster older (meaning to me, over the age of 3) children. These kids might come from some really tough situations, but no matter how difficult, very often, these kids’ mom or dad are still these kids’ parents. That love is deep, and things can be incredibly difficult without breaking that bond. We see this in The Florida Project. We see Moonee and her mother as her mother does all that she thinks she must do to provide for her daughter. Granted, her mother is but a child herself, and we see that in her actions, in her limited ability to reason, and in her juvenile response to life and authority. But that is the life lived by many.
I learned after watching the film that Sean Baker directed it. Ah, this made sense. I loved watching Tangerine, his film from summer 2015. Thus, I wasn’t surprised how much I enjoyed The Florida Project. Baker has a gift for telling these stories.
These stories are those that when in a film, I wish everyone would watch. I was recharged watching this film. I was excited and hopeful that some people who have no exposure to the lives of children who don’t live a mainstream suburban life might gain at least a small understanding that just because a parent might be negligent does not negate the love that parent feels. But I was reminded by my companion’s view that many don’t want to see harsh things in a movie. Many don’t want an honest slice of life. Many want just an all-star cast to watch for a couple of hours. Even if you’re among the latter, I encourage you to stretch and watch a few movies that challenge us to see sides of society we ignore. Understanding those lives by more of us surely can only lead to a better society for all of us.