Quick warning. If you don’t like movies that lack a story arc, conflict and/or resolution, skip The Florida Project, its execution is along the lines of the day(s)-in-the-life of a child and her friends amusing themselves on the slummy drag heading towards DisneyWorld. To me, Florida shares the same DNA as Dazed n’ Confused and Car Wash but covers a period of weeks, not just a single day.
The primary character is Moonee, a child who lives in a transients’ hotel with her mother and spends her days entertaining herself amongst the numerous other children. For example, they play hide n’ seek around the hotels, they vandalize abandoned properties and panhandle for ice cream. Moonee’s mother Halley is practically a teenager herself and in order to pay the weekly rent, Halley grifts and hustles by reselling perfume in the parking lot of a nearby resort, resells stolen Disney ride bracelets and inevitably, prostitution.
One bright spot in Moonee existence is the hotel manager Bobby, played by the fantastic Willem Dafoe. Bobby has a heart of gold and is sympathetic toward the children. His threats to throw Halley out over various offenses tend to ring hollow because he probably worries more about what will happen to the children should their parents become homeless. A solid demonstration of his protective nature is when he spots a child molester hanging out at the picnic area the kids are playing. Bobby is cool, calm until he gets the creep away from the children and then gets violent with promises to call the cops.
The primary point Florida is trying to make is how resilient children are in the face of poverty. Moonee and her friends get into the same mischief my friends and me did either in the Houston suburbs or the nicer middle-class neighborhoods of the Midwest. In short, children are fully capable of occupying their attention-spans without money, tablets and video games. They have done this for centuries. Another element the director-writer brought out is how Disney looms like a giant while hundreds of people live hand-to-mouth in its shadow, ergo, all those corporate tax breaks don’t benefit very many people.
As I wrap this up, I want to make something clear regarding my praise for Florida. I am not a film snob who prefers the Post Modern (weird for the sake of weird as per Dana Gould defines it) or goofy or super artsy fartsy. I just like what I like. I don’t have any special gift or insight. So fear not, if you don’t care for Florida, I’m good with you. I am more in the camp promoting movies as something that should spark a conversation, a debate and/or resonant with our emotions. “Popcorn” movies (translation…crappy) are usually a waste of money and can be watched on TV without gaining/losing any their craziness. I go to the movies to feel something and when this happens, the movie has succeeded.