The Florida Project

The Florida Project (2017)

Runtime: 111 minutes

Directed by: Sean Baker

Starring: Brooklynn Prince, Christopher Rivera, Aiden Malik, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe

From: A24

A 6 year old girl calling another little girl a “stupid thot”... no, just no.

You know, I don't have a good explanation as to why I did not see this film before. While I don't live as close to Walt Disney World as the main characters of this picture, it takes me about an hour to leave where I live and end up in one of the WDW parks (and that includes parking then walking from the parking lot to the entrance) & I actually recognized some of the locations shown in the movie. As it was very easy to see it in the fall of '17 at one of a plethora of auditoriums in the area... like I said, I should have seen this on the big screen, if only for its setting.

Nevertheless, I can offer a good explanation for why I have rated this lower than most people on Letterboxd and elsewhere. I knew I was in trouble with the opening scene where the lead girl (Moonee... and what the hell kind of a name is that?) and her two boy friends projectile spit onto an 80's Chrysler Corporation K-Car station wagon and the car owner (an older lady) comes out to curse at the kids, and the kids curse right back and say awful things to the lady and the young girl that's with her... to think that even more abhorrent behavior would be done by those children later on, and they almost always act this crass and gross.

From the plot description I expected caustic moments from Moonee's mom, but those kids? To be honest, I usually try to avoid unpleasant pictures like this, which is why I have not seen some popular indie favorites from the past 10 or so years just based off of their trailers being immediate turn-offs for me, or word of mouth, or other reasons. I did not enjoy hanging out with most of these characters for almost two hours; the fact that the plot seemed totally aimless was another issue. And what the hell was that ending? What a gigantic misstep that just did not fit with the rest of the movie; I had actually forgotten how at the time, plenty expressed dissatisfaction with the ending, and now I understand why.

Brooklynn Prince did a great job and all for a 6 year old, but I really only got joy whenever Willem Dafoe showed up; besides delivering a tremendous performance (and in a great moment, yelling at some large birds), it was a character I could somewhat relate to and not loathe. It's nice that most others loved this and many were moved to tears; I did not feel that way AT ALL about this. It's not that I don't have sympathy for all those suffering from poverty, as I do. My problem was that this was not an enjoyable or an enlightening or an informative experience for me at all... it was just another indie movie from recent times that wallowed in misery and anguish.