This week gives movie-goers who love the new film Anora a chance to sample writer-director Sean Baker’s acclaimed earlier work, The Florida Project, on the big screen.
The award-winning movie, first released in 2017, is playing November 16-18 at The SLO Film Center at the Palm Theatre in San Luis Obispo.
I first discovered Baker in 2015 through his transgender Christmas comedy classic, Tangerine (shot using three iPhones), followed by The Florida Project and 2021’s Red Rocket.
Baker eschews Hollywood traditions and big-name stars, focusing instead on smaller films and the stories of people who scrape by on the edges of society.
Though these are all comedies, Baker wraps his stories in deep humanistic swaths, demanding that audiences care about these characters and become invested in their plight.
Case in point: The Florida Project, a story that plays out in the seedy shadow of Disney World, at a low-rent motel used mostly for welfare cases. Willem Dafoe, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (well-deserved), plays Bobby, the well-meaning motel manager struggling to keep things together at what’s left of the Magic Castle Inn and Suites.
Baker captures a comedy-drama that, unfortunately, is playing out across the country . . . There are moments when you feel like you’re watching an actual documentary.”
The main character is six-year-old Moonee, who lives with her young, single mother Halley, a stripper who loses her job after refusing to have sex with the clients. Struggling to pay the rent, Halley tries to sell knock-off perfume to tourists staying at the better hotels. Things go downhill quickly from there.
But mostly The Florida Project is about the children who live at the motel—Moonee and her friends drift in and out of trouble on any given day. They start a fire, throw water balloons at other guests, and complicate Bobby’s life at every turn with their antics.
Baker remains unflinching at capturing ordinary people pushed to the edge. As the Florida Department of Children and Families hovers, Halley must make some tough choices if the family is to survive.
As critics have noted since the film’s initial release, Brooklynn Prince is a revelation as the young Moonee, and she carries the film with the assurance of a seasoned professional. Dafoe, always good, is particularly strong in providing the film’s moral compass.
The Florida Project is arguably the least laugh-out-loud of Baker’s comedy repertoire. More slight smiles than loud guffaws, for sure. But you quickly end up caring about these lost kids, destined to repeat their parents’ mistakes, and Baker captures a comedy-drama that, unfortunately, is playing out across the country.
Poverty is real. The system is unfair. Children suffer. Families struggle. There are moments when you feel like you’re watching an actual documentary.
In truth, all of us want to spend time in the Magic Kingdom, but with The Florida Project, Baker expertly reminds us that not everyone is allowed through the gates, and most have to leave sooner than they’d like.