The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017)

[domino harvey]

The Florida Project is receiving strong praise at Cannes, maybe next time he'll actually be invited into the main lineup

[The Narrator Returns]

A24 has bought the rights to The Florida Project

[mfunk9786]

Trailer

[jojo]

Glenn Kenny is no fan of Baker's

Seems he liked The Florida Project

[Black Hat]

The Florida Project isn't likely a movie I'd want to watch again anytime soon, but it's extremely well executed all the way around. Baker knows what he's doing and has, as he showed in Tangerine, a real knack for lighting. Willem Dafoe is fantastic in this, really embraces a physicality to the part of a character who thru his job has seen it all, but still retains such an utter humanity towards others.

[mfunk9786]

If this doesn’t win Best Picture this year I’ll be surprised. It is a high wire act to make something so deeply felt about people who are in such dire circumstances but Baker pulls it off in a way that is more digestible to more people than American Honey, which is really impressive. Will have more to say once I can process this one. Hope enough people see it to create the buzz it deserves.

[All the Best People]

Just got back from this and it might be the first great 2017 release I've seen. In many ways, it feels like a companion piece to American Honey (a film I thought was good but not great) in its depiction of a put-upon subculture of poverty and desperation, one in which we can readily identify people who would get out if given a sliver of a chance and some who would keep finding ways to doom themselves even if they came upon a bit of luck -- this film largely focuses on the latter, though both circumstances are tragic and human in their own ways. It seems all at once despairing but also not without joy and hope thanks to its emphasis on children and the power of their imagination. Chock-full of emotionally rich moments, terrific work with the children as performers, a thoughtful and skilled but not attention-grabbing visual approach. The ending really brought it all home, too, in an ambiguous, ambivalent, and beautiful way. My thoughts here aren't coherent, but I heartily recommend this, and hope people can see it while it's still out.

(The only other Baker I've seen is Tangerine, which I liked enough but didn't have any particular affection for, so I don't have any standing to compare this to the rest of his work. I've had Starlet in my Netflix queue forever, so it looks like it's time to finally check off that box.)

[senseabove]

I saw this a few nights ago, too—with just one other person in the theater, sadly (though it was a late show on a Tuesday, so I guess that's understandable)—and I went in ready to be unimpressed, but it really, really won me over and has continued to do so the more I sit with it. I generally don't enjoy contemporary "poverty porn/slumming it" movies, and while I appreciated Tangerine's willingness to build a story around characters otherwise ignored by most people and media, played by actors who actually represent them, it still had a whiff of "exotic social tourism" that it never quite got out from under. Seeing The Florida Project, I can put my finger on why with a little more precision: the improvisational scripting and reality-TV-esque handheld cinematography of Tangerine, while intended to lend an air of realism, instead heightened the artificiality and amplified the "outsider looking in" feeling.

But The Florida Project manages to be empathetic and compassionate towards its characters without being apologetic, touristy, or accusatory; combined with a far smoother style, the movie lets their situation speak for itself. It's refreshing that it doesn't go Oscar-baity for the Message Picture Angle and try to Teach The Audience that Poor People Are People Too, Society Did This or At Least Didn't Stop It, etc. Those ideas are present, of course, but focusing on Moonee lets them bubble up naturally, through, for example, Defoe's incredibly balanced performance as an emergency-stop surrogate father, or by situating the children's world as encapsulated in the adult world, oblivious but littered with its remnants—abandoned condos, pocket change, lost lighters—and afflicted by its struggles. Baker also pulls off some wonderfully expressive but simple cinematography, such as the simple act of refocusing rather than cutting when

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Moonee leans back and forth in her chair at the buffet

.

Though there are some moments that are a little too on the nose (e.g. Moonee's reason why

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that tree is her favorite

), when he does push the empathy hard, it's usually in service to a pay off that feels justified by an equivalent intensity. The finest example, of course, is the cut

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to that final shot, from Jancey and Moonee in the doorway to them running through the park,

which may be the fastest I've ever gone from respect for the handling of a tricky emotional climax, to eye-rolling disappointment, to complete admiration. It took about six seconds to run that gamut, but the directional shift from one kind of emotional intensity to a completely different kind maintains that intensity while completely repurposing it. Its jarring nature is a rare, wholly earned moment of sympathetic identification with a character's catharsis: the shift to the

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iPhone footage with a non-diegetic soundtrack

suddenly and starkly highlights both the children's and the audience's limited control and understanding and a shared form of outsider status. I've seen lots of folks insist that

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the last shot must be fantasy, because there's no way the two kids could run into the park like that, and I have no idea of the logistics of doing so. But it's irrelevant: it's a fantastic, in both senses, escape, whether or not its a feasible one.

[All the Best People]

Oh, the ending is

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completely impossible, which is what gives it its power. So much of the children's experience is their fantasy, their way of seeing the world through a sense of wonder no matter how dire the circumstances, that when the direst of circumstances comes to be they escape into the highest fantasy.

I found it a moving and appropriate end.

[mfunk9786]

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I felt the same way. We were already seeing much of the film through the eyes of children, without verging into full-on fantasy - so why not take that plunge for the film's final moments? It felt very much earned after seeing reality closing in on those girls.

[AtlantaFella]

I found it a moving and appropriate end.

The final scene

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knocked the breath out me and I had to sit for a minute to collect myself. This was an inspired choice and one of the most emotionally impactful moments I have ever seen on film.

As for the full movie... so much devastating social commentary packaged in beautiful pastels. I came home after seeing this in the theater and ordered copies of three of Baker's older titles.

Here's hoping this one gets the recognition it deserves.

[domino harvey]

An improvement on Tangerine but nowhere near the glorious heights of Starlet, this didn't quite work for me. Dafoe is the clear standout here, though, and an Oscar win would be well-merited beyond career recognition: this is the essence of a great supporting role, unflashy and lived-in, but I have my doubts many Oscar voters make it through the entire film to recognize that. While I found many of the ragtag adventures of the kids and grown-up kids oddly watchable, there's a fine line between presenting obnoxious behaviors and relishing them, and I think this film tips over in the wrong direction more than a few times. Rather than lyrical, I found much of the film flirting with various shades of grating, which often works for the material, but ultimately it's all just a bit much for me in the end.

[mfunk9786]

What did you think of the ending?

[domino harvey]

I think Baker offers a noble attempt to pretend the technological limitations of filming that sequence were artistically-driven and not the result of practicality. I found no particular power in its employment, however

[mfunk9786]

Yeah, he admitted at the Q&A I was at that it was the only way it was getting done and it seemed that most of the tear-streaked faces in the audience thought it was worth it. Unfortunately, that was one of the last times the film would ever be seen by a packed house, so...

[barryconvex]

This is a great movie. After hate watching the second season of Stranger Things with its cast of pathetically over directed, cutesy poo stage brats how refreshing it is to see kids act like kids. Smelly, disobedient, loud, obnoxious little fuckers-kids. I also have to give props to Bria Vinaite (and to Baker for finding and getting what he gets out of her) who played Moonee's mother. The best performance by a non-pro since Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank, which is sort of Florida's older british cousin. I second the love for the ending and Dafoe's performance. I can't think of one thing about this movie that i didn't like. Tied with Lady Bird for my favorite of 2017...

[mfunk9786]

Glad someone has called out Bria Vinaite's great first-time performance - she wears her character's past traumas and abuse on her sleeve, and it's heartbreaking to see her wavering back and forth between utter disarray and trying to muster all the maturity she can find to try to be a good mother. The core of said motherly love is unquestionably strong despite the practical intangibles of it being in total shambles. In a better country she'd be in publicly funded therapy, working through her (unspoken in the film) past, able to improve her day-by-day usefulness to her daughter and usefulness to herself. Surely much of the public response to this film is due to viewers unable to resist casting damning judgment on her character, which is sort of the 'big reason' the movie needs to exist.

This is the sort of film that keeps growing and growing in my esteem, but it makes me so emotional even to think about (while I wasn't outwardly emotional through 98% of my first and only viewing of it), that I might not be able to muster a rewatch for another few months, if not years. But it's definitely one of 2017's very best, and save Phantom Thread, none of the Best Picture nominees stand up to it in my mind.

[domino harvey]

Well, I'll question her "motherly love" and feel absolutely fine damning her character for

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having sex with johns while her daughter waits in the bathroom

[Brian C]

I guess I'd come at it from a somewhat different angle. For Halley, having a kid and the responsibilities that go with that are just a fact of life to be dealt with, like needing to pay the rent or find food or whatever. I'm not saying that she's dead inside - I'm sure she'd be devastated if the kid died, for example, and it's not like she's likely to drop the kid off at the orphanage and walk away relieved to not have the burden to deal with.

Still, her general lack of empathy for other people extends to how she sees the daughter too, and there's not really any indication that she sees Moonee as a real person apart from Halley's own self. Like she sees everything else, Halley sees Moonee only through the lens of how the kid affects her own life and the frustrations and amusements that the kid brings. I think she feels some vague sense of maternal responsibility - I don't think she wants to be a terrible person - but I think "motherly love" is perhaps beside the point. That's an abstract concept to begin with, and she's too badly damaged by whatever trials she's faced in her life to have the openness to give much of anything of herself.

[mfunk9786]

No one above me is incorrect, exactly - I just feel that deep maternal love is within her, but she is too damaged to know where to begin to give it outside of fits and starts. There are moments of it within this film, but to judge her for her level of responsibility seems to me to be totally beside the point. Her character is a deeply damaged person, and likely has been for similar reasons as Moonee may wind up that way (or, may not wind up that way thanks to the adults around her trying their damnedest to make sure of it within their limited capabilities - Halley included).

Can we blame Halley for all that, exactly? Specifically? It would probably be unfair to do so, as far as I'm concerned. That's the inherent tragedy of the film. We can make a list a mile long of less than ideal parenting decisions, but does it mean she loves her daughter less than a stay at home mother in the suburbs?

[Oedipax]

I think Baker offers a noble attempt to pretend the technological limitations of filming that sequence were artistically-driven and not the result of practicality. I found no particular power in its employment, however

Does Disney not allow at least DSLRs or mirrorless compacts into their parks? I'm kind of skeptical that the iPhone was the absolute only way they could shoot the scene with enough discretion. I think there's at least some aesthetic dimension to why he chose the iPhone over other compact cameras that could deliver a more technically robust image.

[movielocke]

No one above me is incorrect, exactly - I just feel that deep maternal love is within her, but she is too damaged to know where to begin to give it outside of fits and starts. There are moments of it within this film, but to judge her for her level of responsibility seems to me to be totally beside the point. Her character is a deeply damaged person, and likely has been for similar reasons as Moonee may wind up that way (or, may not wind up that way thanks to the adults around her trying their damnedest to make sure of it within their limited capabilities - Halley included).

Can we blame Halley for all that, exactly? Specifically? It would probably be unfair to do so, as far as I'm concerned. That's the inherent tragedy of the film. We can make a list a mile long of less than ideal parenting decisions, but does it mean she loves her daughter less than a stay at home mother in the suburbs?

She actually has a pretty normal post-welfare reform set up, with her childcare agreement with her friend. she works nights as stripper, so her friend watches moonee while she's working. Her friend works days as a waitress, so Halley "watches" Mooney and her friend's kid during the day.

But of course the opening scene of the film, Halley is explaining that she lost her job, that's crucial because it starts the negative feedback loop that results in the final outcome.

Because of welfare reform, she's not eligible for TANF cash aid unless she has a job, or uses up her time she could be working doing "volunteer" job-like work, welfare reform doesn't allow her to access to education except for semi-worthless certificates from for-profit schools which require about fifteen thousand in tuition or student loans to access (the official rationale of welfare reform ending support for people in school was that if you're on welfare you were probably a bad student in high school so why waste money on cash aid for you while you waste time in school that you could be putting to productive use working??). That all starts to matter because when Halley--stressed out, panicked from poverty and unemployment-- in a fit of thoughtless peak, deliberately shatters her friendship that ends the child care sharing agreement they had worked out.

she doesn't know it, but her petty actions have far reaching consequences for her rather quickly.

Now she can't get a job because she doesn't have childcare. She can't get TANF cash aid because she doesn't have a job, alternatively, she can't do government approved volunteering in work related activities because she doesn't have childcare to allow her to do that.

In other words, the more she gets cut off from the tenuous and fragile ad hoc social support systems within the motel, the more she is going to be relentlessly guided into each progressively worse decision she makes. That's the essence of the American poverty trap, this is how the system is designed to work (at least since 1997, this is the intent), people like her should not get cash aid to provide housing, food, clothing for her and daughter, people like her should be forced into far worse situations because they deserve it, they're guilty of being undeserving because they are poor, is the official rationale .

She's basically screwed until she screws up so bad that her kid gets taken away.

That said, she does have agency, she doesn't HAVE to do any of the actions that she does. But she's a short term thinker, and the entire construction and perpetuation of poverty in America is a system that is designed to create these outcomes, certainly, we actively try to avoid intervening with the assistance people need to avoid these outcomes.

Blame Clinton, don't blame Halley.

[felipe]

Blame Clinton, don't blame Halley.

I understand the idea that she's somewhat trapped in a circle caused by poverty, but to me the film does manage to show that the other parents living in the motel are way more responsible and concerned about their children. Right from the beginning when the kids spit on the car and one of the father's keeps his son from hanging out with Moonee. Later on we see that family moving out of the motel. Isn't the message "the responsible father moves up in life, Halley will remain stuck in that motel"?

[movielocke]

Oh I was under the impression that father was staying one step ahead of ICE and was hoping to disappear in Texas

[domino harvey]