Half way through the movie I got up to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The film transports you back to childhood, when everything was bright and colorful, when there was nothing to worry about, when you could scream at the top of your lungs as you got into mischief with your friends. I was so transported to that time, in fact, that I stopped to enhance my nostalgia even more – by making a childhood favorite, PB&J.
What I really liked about this film is how it expresses larger themes through a smaller lens. The film takes place in a deteriorating tourist spot in Florida, near Disney World. The setting is densely populated with big, colorful ice cream shops and giant orange juice stands and gaudy souvenir traps. It’s all a bit magical at first glance. But the closer you look, the more you see the cracks in that magical veneer.
Moonee, a rambunctious, adventuresome little girl, lives with her struggling mother in a purple hotel run by Bobby (Willem Defoe). For the majority of the movie we’re just tagging along with Moonee and her friends as they cause trouble for Bobby, their parents, and their little world at large. So, the film is framed mostly from their perspective. But, just like the children in the film, we as the audience can see the true human darkness that bubbles just underneath the surface. And that’s what makes this movie so heartbreaking at times. These children live in squalor and chaos, and their parents either don’t have the means or the motivation to really…parent them. To provide for them. To help them learn and become good people. These children are, in essence, doomed to repeat the mistakes of their parents in an endless cycle of generational misfortune…unless they find a way to escape.
Yes, Willem Defoe is good in this movie, as advertised. Though I don’t know if his performance lives up to the hype that I’ve been hearing. I’ve heard people say this is his best role. I don’t know if I’d say that. Not because he’s not really good in The Florida Project, but I just think he’s had a lot of good performances. This is one of them.
Even though the characters in this movie – including the children – are often despicable and annoying, I couldn’t help but root for them. They experience a different world than I ever will. But the film is so good at pulling you into the world through these characters’ eyes, that you empathize with them in a way that you maybe never would have before. In that way, it’s very atmospheric, and vibrant, and real. And in its own way, very hopeful too.
4 out of 5 stars