 |
| Willem Dafoe and Brooklynn Prince in "The Florida Project" Photo Credit: Imdb.com |
One of the many powers of film is that it can transport you to places that are unfamiliar to you, but could feel closer than you think. Different people and cultures are all around us, and to see them on screen can give you a look into these communities and provide you with the feeling of visiting a whole other world.
Director Sean Baker accomplishes this with his latest drama, “The Florida Project.” Filmed with almost all unprofessional actors and using a day-in-the-life narrative for its characters, Baker delivers one of the most affecting movies of the year.
In Kissimmee, Florida, six-year-old Moonie (Brooklynn Prince) lives with her mother, Halley (Bria Vinaite), in a motel that’s run by a kind manager, Bobby Hicks (Willem Dafoe). During the day, Moonie spends her time exploring the city with her friends, Jancey (Valeria Cotto) and Scooty (Christopher Rivera), while Halley struggles to keep her and Moonie’s life afloat.
Brooklynn Prince is one of the most astounding discoveries in film this year. She’s able to hold her own amongst the older actors and exhibits a great deal of confidence as a young actress. She captures the innocence and live-life-to-the-fullest persona we have all felt as children, and to see her interacting with her environment shows her character’s strong imaginative spirit, a girl making the best of a bad situation. But, the peak of her performance comes in her final scene, which is the most emotional in the film, and it’s one that elevates her work to rank among the best big-screen debuts of any child actor in recent years.
Although Bria Vinaite’s character is an occasionally infuriating person, being both immature and neglectful, we also see her trying to provide for her daughter, which helps us to feel for her. Vinaite’s role is the epitome of a love-hate relationship, as we sympathize with her as she tries to give Moonie as good of a life as possible, but also dislike her behavior when she reverts back to her less-than-reputable and childish behavior. In all, it’s a heartbreaking performance that promises great things for Vinaite’s career.
Willem Dafoe’s performance reminds me of those given last year by Michelle Williams and Nicole Kidman in “Manchester by the Sea” and “Lion,” respectively, in that, even though they’re established actors, their performances are modest, not showy. In the case of Dafoe, he’s understated to the point where he fits in with the unprofessional actors and doesn’t call attention to himself, but he’s still allowed to display his acting powers in smaller ways that are still effective. His performance is of someone who’s sort of a father figure to Moonie and Halley, offering help whenever he can to make sure they stay on the right path.
The screenplay by Baker and Chris Bergoch doesn’t have a typical three-act structure, but is instead more of a series of vignettes that shows how the characters go about their lives on a daily basis. By telling the story in such a manner, the film provides a greater sense of realism because it’s not the type of movie that has to follow a traditional storytelling format, but instead just takes you from one day to the next as it shows you what Mooney, Halley, and the other characters experience in this lifestyle.
Throughout the film, Baker and Bergoch invite comparisons between Moonie’s hometown and Disney World, as she doesn’t live too far away from the . The motels and other tourist attractions around Moonie’s motel almost create her and her friends’ own version of Disney World, as her motel is called the Magic Castle (a stand-in for the Magic Kingdom), the Futureland Motel (a stand-in for Epcot’s Future World). And then we have Moonie taking Jancey on a safari to see a herd of cows (the Animal Kingdom), and when they relax under a giant tree (the Animal Kingdom’s Tree of Life). By doing this, the screenwriters juxtapose Disney World with the outside world that people don’t normally consider or see when they visit the theme park, despite that lifestyle being in the park’s own backyard.
Because Baker uses a cast of mostly unprofessional actors, this aspect adds to the authentic portrait of this piece of American life, as he follows his subjects like a documentarian. This is exemplified in the scenes where Halley takes Moonie to upscale hotels, where they stand outside to sell perfume to passersby. Most of the time in these scenes, he films the mother and daughter from afar, like an explorer observing a species in the wild.
“The Florida Project” is one of those movies that will stick in your mind after you leave the theater because there isn’t anything else quite like it that has come out this year. It’s a tribute to childhood and how the optimism at such a stage in a person’s existence can help them see their life as being a little brighter than it may be at the moment. It’s an optimism we’ve all needed when we were younger, knowing that, in those moments, were when we were most invincible.
No comments:
Post a Comment