Review of The Florida Project (2017) by Ffejery — 17 Dec 2017

I think this is one of the best written plots of the year. The plot escalates slowly, almost always driven by Halley's bad decisions/negligence. She is the antagonist. I think it's a traditional three act plot.

The inciting incident is Halley losing her job, act 1 ends with the abandoned duplex's burning down, this leads to Halley's friend grounding her kid and not telling Haley why, which makes Halley turn against her, losing her friend, lifeline for cash and a place for her daughter to stay.

This forces her to resort to desperate ways to earn the weekly rent. When she is finally turned in for doing an illegal activity this is the end of Act 2. Act 3 is my favorite final act of any movie I saw this year.

The audience probably knows what's coming and even the other tenants can see it, but Halley can't, and that's tragic irony. I love the scene where she's cleaning out her room, and gives her weed to the cleaning lady, and the cleaning lady hugs her and tells her it's going to be ok and yet she still doesn't understand.

For whatever reason the very end didn't quite pack the emotional punch I was hoping for. Maybe they needed to show the kid getting dragged away, van doors shutting on her for some finality, and then she could look out at disney world from the van window.

I don't know. At any rate, still impressive. I never felt like the writing was condescending to the characters, however I think what the story was missing was a character that defied some stereotypes of the world Sean Baker is portraying.

Great acting, great cinematography. I would definitely watch it again.