Review of The Florida Project (2017) by Claudio B — 01 Jan 2018

A great little indie film about a little girl named Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) who lives with her mom Halley (Bria Vinaite) in an extended stay motel called the Magic Kingdom close to Walt Disney World in Florida.

Halley is out of a job and not exactly what you would call role-model material. A lot of her mannerisms have trickled down to Moonee leaving the child with some pretty terrible habits such as cursing and not respecting too many people.

The motel is managed by a man named Bobby (Willem Dafoe) who knows that no one is suppose to exactly live in the motel, but has made arrangements, so that they don't break the law and many families can stay there.

He has a soft spot for the kids living in the motel which leads him to looking out for them a lot more than he should be. The film goes over a summer in Moonee's life with her best friends Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and newcomer Jancey (Valeria Cotto).

The area they live in is almost a bit magical in its way featuring gift stores with a Giant Wizard head, abandoned buildings and plenty of local wildlife aka its a kids dream come true in a way especially since a lot is going on with Halley that Moonee doesn't quite understand.

I enjoyed the little slice of life story here and enjoyed that although Halley is not exactly super likeable, she at least looks out for Moonee and everything she does good and bad is for her daughter.

It's not exactly a pick me up movie and is a bit depressing knowing that a lot of people still live like this. It has a lot of hope and shows the story about the innocence of a child and how one can cope with how they have to live.

It is a bit of a slow burn, but overall, solid indie film that I recommend giving a look at.