Review of The Florida Project (2017) by Nobodyyouknow — 01 Nov 2020

Your reaction to this film will rely largely on two things:

1) Your expectations. 2) Your patience. This movie does not follow Hollywood conventions, so if you want the standard Hollywood storytelling approach, you won't like this. And related to that is the fact that the first half of the film plays like a documentary and, hence, doesn't have a clear narrative arc. What you see is the life of a young mother and daughter and the people in their immediate orbit living at/below the poverty line. The realism achieved is truly remarkable, especially the way the children spend their time -- like all kids, they only know their own extremely limited experience, and they figure out how to have fun without showing any signs of deprivation. Despite the mother's limited ability to provide for her daughter, we never see signs of her love for her daughter faltering, even when her situation becomes dire.

If you're patient and just accept the slow pace of the first half, you'll reap the rewards of that patience. Just let the remarkably realistic performances wash over you. The kids are fantastic, but I also give kudos to director Sean Baker for eliciting these utterly natural/realistic performances from all the kids -- I'd guess that Baker filmed many hours of the children playing without strict direction in order to capture the way kids play in real life. I don't believe I've ever seen a more natural, believable performance from a child than I saw from Brooklynn Prince (Monee).

It all feels very slice-of-life until a pivotal event about 3/4 through the movie involving the mother and another mother in the motel. The consequences of that event unfold in an equally realistic fashion, and the drama heightens, but still in a very realistic, non-sensational way. I won't say what happens, but in a scene when authorities become involved, I eventually was moved to tears. At the end of the movie, I realized that my strong reaction was largely due to the investment of time in the movie's first half -- I felt that I had experienced a great deal of the protagonists' real lives, and when their lives became disrupted, I felt the heartbreaking effects of that investment.

Some will feel cheated by the ending of the movie, but I thought it was just right. Again, this film doesn't adhere to the standard Hollywood approach, and as such, it doesn't hand you a clear-cut, tied-in-a-bow ending. But this movie never tries to be a feel-good flick -- it's showing you the reality experienced by a portion of the US who is barely mentioned/acknowledged in pop culture. Again, your expectations matter here. Know that the ending is a metaphor for the feelings/desires of Monee who is reacting to the news of what feels like a traumatic life change. If you're open to this kind of ending, just make sure to have tissues ready.