| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Zoe Aresti |
Digital Cinema Media's Partnerships Manager, Adam Reynolds, reviews The Florida Project from the 61st BFI London Film Festival.
Sean Baker’s 2015 breakout hit Tangerine delved into the seedy underworld of LA’s skidrow as a transsexual prostitute hunts down her cheating pimp boyfriend. Using an unknown cast and shooting the entire film on iPhones, the film was lauded for its realism and unflinching portrayal of life below the poverty line in Los Angeles.
For his follow up, The Florida Project, Baker once again explores the dark underbelly of broken America, this time following the residents of a run-down, lilac motel called The Magic Kingdom in a run-down part of Orlando, Florida.
Our protagonists, Halley [Bria Vinaite] and her young daughter Moonee [Brooklynn Prince], live day-to-day in the motel, Halley turning tricks and hawking cheap perfume to pay her $30 nightly fee to the long- suffering motel manager Bobby [Willem Dafoe]. We see the world through the naïve eyes of young Moonee, who sees the barren landscape as her playground, causing mischief as she recruits new kids to her precocious posse.
The proximity of the purple motel to Disney’s magical castle is a deliberate juxtaposition; Halley and Moonee’s world couldn’t be further apart from the saccharine world just across the highway.
Tonally the film complements Andrea Arnold’s epic American Honey for its visceral portrayal of America’s problem kids, those who have been forgotten by the system but remain optimistic for the future. The Florida Project is a bittersweet fairytale which captures the spirit of youth against all odds.