Filmology Rating: 3 out of 4

It’s always a struggle when you come out of a film not in love with it when all the other voices you hear are praising the film.  It’s even more of a struggle when you understand the reasons that people are citing for the film being a success, but those reasons never connected with you.  The Florida Project is a great example of a technically perfect film with characters who are infuriating leading those who understand the human condition to become furious.    

Moonee, played by Brooklynn Prince, and her mother Halley, played by Bria Vinaite, live in hotels that were meant to be for tourists in Kissimmee Florida.  They both seem to be content with the lives they were living, but hotel manager Bobby, played by Willem Dafoe, seems to be looking out for them more than they seem to care about themselves.  The entire world changes for the trio when emotions explode like a hurricane in the sunshine state.   

The Florida Project was never a film that connected with me and rarely did I ever empathize with any of the characters in the film, which is something that I always crave in a film.  While I still appreciate the craft of the film, I have always been a narrative over style type of viewer.  I rather watch a film that has a compelling narrative and lacks a visual style, over a film that is completely style and offers little substance to go with it.  I wouldn’t imagine trying to make the claim that The Florida Project is a film that puts style over substance; the film clearly has an admiration for all of its characters and never judges them.  I’m going to come off as an arrogant misogynistic person but I never find sympathy or empathy for those in terrible situations and cannot attempt to find a way to better their lives.  I find those people to be self destructive narcissists who feed off of the productivity of others.  In my mind,I kept thinking about how the characters pay $38 a night to stay at the hotel they are residing at while I pay $600 a month for my current living situation.  Those characters who are paying over $400 a month compared to what I pay, and that is by the choices of those characters.  I’m currently in a situation that I rather not be in, so I find myself working 40 hours a week saving every penny I have to attempt to make a better life for myself.  Instead the characters spend money on tattoos and cigarettes, clinging for that life that they desperately shun yet want envy.  To add even more of my personal color to the film, I’m looking into moving to the Kissimmee area, where the film takes place. I know for a fact that you couldn’t find a studio or one bedroom apartment for less than $700 a month, and it would be in better living conditions than the characters dwell in.  Sean Baker might not be judging these characters but I cannot help but realize how self- destructive they are, and how cruel they can be to each other.  The society that they inhabit thrives on destruction and they do nothing but help enable it.  

While I personally have issues with the characters in The Florida Project, the artistic craft of the film is phenomenal.  In order to get the intense reaction I had towards the characters, the acting needed to feel authentic and it does.  The performances given by newcomers Brooklynn Prince and Bria Vinaite are amazing and would lead you to believe that they have been acting for years, while the nuance performance given by Willem Dafoe is truly special.  The way in which cinematographer Alexis Zabe captures the technicolor world of childhood and how as children we look at everything and see the wonder in it. Baker captures the footage in a documentary style in which we are stealing moments from these children.  All of the technical aspects of this film are perfection and when looking at them without human emotion the film is spectacular and should be admired as one of the best films of the year; but the moment that I need to empathize with the characters is the moment that the film falters for me.  The last few minutes of the film actually left me flabbergasted, I couldn’t decide what Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch were attempting to say.  I don’t want to spoil the ending, since it is unique but I find that it doesn’t fit the rest of the film,  and it had me leaving the theatre with a bitter taste in my mouth.   

It is always easier to recommend films with characters who you can empathize with rather ones that leave you fuming,  but it makes those films with rather despicable characters even more special.  The Florida Project shows us a world that most didn’t know existed in all of its beauty and horror, a world that offers laughter and heartbreak, a world that might be a lot closer than you would like to believe.  

Rating: See It

-Jonny G