The 2017 coming-of-age drama, The Florida Project, is an astonishing A24 film directed by Sean Baker and written by Baker and Chris Bergoch. The film takes place in Kissimmee, Florida, near Walt Disney World, where a struggling, unemployed single mother (Bria Vinaite) and her six-year-old daughter (Brooklynn Prince) live in a budget motel owned by a friendly man named Bobby (Willem Dafoe). The film shows the realistic struggle and hardships that come with barely making ends meet, while also showing the joyful adventures the local residents and children experience as they explore what is around them.
Though this movie came out years ago, it still manages to make an impression on me every time I watch it. And with the many movies I have watched over the years, The Florida Project continues to stay with me time and time again. If you would like the honor of experiencing this movie as so many have, it is available on a variety of television subscriptions like Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, and Hulu.
The film itself won the 2018 American Film Institute for AFI Movies of the Year, being one of the only 10 movie winners. Major actors in the film,
like Prince, won the 2018 Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Young Actor/Actress, and Willem Dafoe won three awards for Best Supporting Actor. The film’s director, Sean Baker, also won the 2018 New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Director. Overall, this film received 17 major nominations and won seven awards, and it never fails to impress its viewers.
A24 movies have extremely strong cinematography, with bold and saturated colors, neon lights, and unique camera angles that create this style of filming unlike any other. The Florida Project does not fail to portray this way of filmmaking through its realistic plot. In the 2023 Oscars season, A24 studios proved to be extremely successful when they received 18 nominations and 9 wins across 6 of their films. Although this film is one of the many successes of the studio, it specifically solidified A24’s reputation as significant in the film industry, reinforcing the studio’s brand.
I like this movie because it brings out real-life issues, but it also shows how characters can find light in those situations. Even though these characters are struggling, they undergo joyful adventures as they explore and make the most of their surroundings. The clash of adult sinfulness and child innocence proves to be a universal theme that gives the audience a strong sense of empathy towards the film and its characters. One specific scene shows Moonee and her friend Jancey playing at her motel, The Magic Castle. They stand on the black pavement around them, looking up at the purple motel, with a beautiful rainbow glistening behind it. Their jokes and laughter fill your ears as they run around playing and searching for the leprechaun with the gold end of the rainbow.
The ending scene left me in tears with the amazing performance from Prince, who was being taken away from her mother by child services. The poor child barely escapes to Disney World with her friend, showing once again that even in a world of chaos, joy, and innocence is still able to live. The color saturation in the film stands out and shapes the mood and my emotional experience. The bright purple color of the motel gives me a warm and bright feeling, despite the horrible conditions in which the two girls are living. This adds some uniqueness to the film, unlike anything I have seen before.
Ultimately, The Florida Project has outstanding filmmaking and an engaging plot that captures life with honesty and heart, which stays with you long after the credits roll.