Review of The Florida Project (2017) by Faithsol — 10 Mar 2022

Willem Dafoe was the only reason I could sit through this. I was shocked that there were no reviews anywhere online exposing the disgusting nature of this film. All these strange scenes that seem to be for no reason: there is a reason, it's pedophile porn.

Kids spitting gratuitously, licking and sharing ice cream multiple times, watching topless women, twerking to music, scantily clad woman juxtaposing the children in nearly every scene (including a bathing suit scene with the little girl), so many scenes of the children wandering around alone, unprotected, 3 different scenes of the same girl in the bathtub, 2 scenes zooming in on girls in wet t-shirts, repeatedly licking jelly toast and an extended scene of the little girl enjoying food really up close, zooming in on children's crotches/legs on the seesaw.

.. It was too many to count after a certain point. It was extremely uncomfortable to watch these shots, and the one scene of Dafoe reprimanding a pedophile does not justify the overt "subliminal" sexual exploitation of these child actors in almost every scene.

Also note that the boy characters are erased very quickly to leave the two girls even more alone and unprotected as they wander in dangerous areas. It is literally a pedophile's dream. As someone who has been sexually abused, at first, I thought I was just uncomfortable because of my own fears and trauma.

After watching, I immediately had to search out who was in charge of this, and if anyone else has called this out. I sincerely hope people understand that this movie director, cinematographer, someone involved in this production knew exactly what these shots were for, and others looked the other way for the sake of the realism and rawness of the film.

It does a great job of showing the darkness of poverty, in a very realistic way. Unfortunately, it's lost in the mess of kiddie-porn-like shots.