The Florida Project

A life of the everyday individual is an interesting film topic to experience. It celebrates the ordinary normal day activities taken into appreciation through realism portrayed through the actors and how it was made. My familiarity with this area is very limited when it comes to how many of these entries exist as well as how long it's been around in the industry. However, in the recent year, I have started looking out for them among the independent films after seeing great standouts such as Good Time and Paterson. This brings us a new entry among that collection, The Florida Project, which captured my attention for a while through its trailer. Before watching it, I was only aware of it gaining positive buzz at film festivals for what appeared to be Willem Dafoes performance and the good critical reception. I went into the auditorium ready to take a break from the blockbusters while stepping back into the aforementioned sub-genre and the left auditorium with mixed feelings but still glad that I watched it.

Plot: Taking place during the summer in Kissimmee, Florida story follows the antics of a trouble-making 6 year-old girl at a motel and the efforts of the manager in keeping the peace among the community of guest living there. It observes the actions she and her friends take from how they are influenced by terrible parenting in harsh circumstances. This idea has a mixed execution in regards to both the story and the characters because, on one hand, it gives plenty of reasons to empathize with her as the environment isn't necessarily enough to keep children entertained and her mother's behavior is rather alarming. However, on the other hand, it lends itself to a repetitive pattern of girl does something bad-loud abrasive lashing between the mother and/or the daughter-manager does what he can to resolve the issue (repeat), dragging out the run time where it could have been helped by removing unnecessary scenes (involving either the mother and/or the daughter). The story also had a perfect opportunity to end, but it hurts itself from its attempt at a surreal ending with clashes against everything else previously established. For all of its issues, the harsh realism presented is relatable and hard to watch based on the circumstances of the leads, while managing some great moments for the responsible adults in conflicts in the second half with the protagonist. Overall The Florida Projects ambitious concept in regards to conveying relatable life in the everyday person loses some of its steam due to an overuse of the narrative formula while managing great uncomfortable moments, despite the ending neutering its effort.

Characters: The people to focus on are Bobby Hicks (Willem Dafoe), Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), and Halley (Bria Vinaite). Bobby is a motel manager who constantly endeavors to maintain peace among the community of guests while following the motel regulations from his boss. Willem Dafoe gives a great performance as the best character whose responsibilities are fascinating to watch as he maneuvers through problems that arise against motel guests (including an excellent moment where he takes on a child molester) and adapts to the situations beyond his control later on (typically surrounding Moonee and Halley). Moonee is Halley's meddling 6 year-old daughter whose enormous potty mouth and prankster antics combined with her wide-eyed innocence makes her compelling and irritating at times. Brooklyn provides solid acting chops as the leading individual with a playful attitude and frustrating presence that tends to overcome her adorable moments (becoming the 2nd most effective trouble magnet for Bobby). Halley is Moonee's carefree, irresponsible, terrible mother whose dirty deeds are more imposing than her loud foul lashing attitude in arguments with those around her (attracting even more disorder for Bobby). Bria suffers with her portrayal as the aforementioned story pattern affects her by giving what seems to be the same dialogue in her furious verbal lashing that ultimately feels stale after a while. Honorable mentions goes to Jancey (Valeria Cotto) and Scooty (Christopher Rivera) for their chemistry with Moonee and adorable charm, though the latter loses his after an incident later on. Overall the cast of The Florida Project provides mostly solid performances but a few of them are hindered by the dialog repetition as a result from the story.

Overall Consensus: The Florida Project struggles to maintain a balance between a repetitive plot pattern and compelling dramatic stakes while boasting mostly solid performances from its cast. ⭑⭑⭑💻

Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actors. You like watching character-focused independent movies that follow a life of the everyday individual. You are conformable with hard to watch realism. You want to see a story taking place in Florida. You want to take a break from blockbusters. You find child actors adorable. You don't mind repeating narrative formulas.

Reasons to avoid it: You dislike any of the aforementioned actors. You dislike watching character-focused independent movies that follow a life of the everyday individual. You are uncomfortable hard to watch realism. You want to see a story taking place in Florida. You want to take a break from blockbusters. You are easily annoyed by child actors. You are bored with repeating narrative formulas.

Coming up next: We are halfway through the month with mixed results at the moment, though it's now leaning more slightly positive. I'm glad to have taken a risk back into an unfamiliar sub-genre with the independent films to take a break from the big blockbusters. However, it's time to return to another cinematic universe with an anticipated team-up event on the other side of the comic book studios. Having been through a rough production debacle with behind the scenes shakeups and having one more chance to make or break their plan of expanding into solo movies for newly introduced heroes, tune in next time as Screening Spectacles will watch to see if Justice League can unite not only the team but also audiences and critics!!!