The Florida Project

*"You know why this is my favourite tree? Why? 'Cause it's tipped over, and it's still growing" ⋆˚꩜｡🚙🧼🚬🧙🏻‍♂️🍦🚕🌴🔥🚔🥞🛁👙🌈🎆🛒 Honestly, such a perfect film, it's made so beautifully and is so brutally raw and honest to reality! ☀︎༄.° ​The first thing that hits you is the vivid colour palette. Sean Baker shot the Magic Castle motel in vibrant, aggressive purples, oranges, and greens that look like they were pulled straight from a bag of Skittles. Everything is neon and bright, mimicking the corporate joy of Disney World just down the road. It’s sweaty, loud, and tactile. You can practically smell the melting soft-serve ice cream and the damp Florida heat! ☀︎༄.° ​The heart of the film is easily Moonee. What Baker captures so brilliantly is the limitless range of a child who has nothing. In most movies about poverty, children are depicted as sombre, tragic figures. But Moonee and her friends are feral in the best way possible. They are allowed to be loud, rude, and adventurous. Because their parents are preoccupied with the gruelling math of survival, while the kids have the whole world at their feet. ☀︎༄.° This film captures that specific childhood magic where you don't realize you're "poor" because your world is as big as your imagination. Their freedom is a byproduct of neglect, creating a heartbreaking paradox where they are the most liberated characters in the film, yet they are the ones with the fewest choices. ☀︎༄.° ​Sean Baker is known for endings that pivot stylistically, and the Florida Project features his most debated one yet. ​When the real world finally catches up to Moonee, when the vibrant colours can no longer mask the legal and social consequences of her mother Halley’s choices, the film breaks. The run to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom is a clear break from the narrative's reality. It is a cinematic wish fulfilment for a child who has spent her life in the shadow of the castle but was never allowed inside. ☀︎༄.° I love how Baker refuses to show us the actual ending (the separation of Moonee from her mother) because it’s too ugly for the world he’s built. Instead, he gives Moonee and us a moment of impossible escape. It is a heartbreaking reminder that for a child like Moonee, the 'Happiest Place on Earth' is a fantasy so out of reach that she has to literally break the film’s reality just to step inside its gates. ☀︎༄.° Willem Dafoe is the real anchor of this film. He plays bobby with a grounded, understated brilliance. Rather than a saviour, he is a man desperately trying to mitigate the fallout of a systemic failure he can not fix. he sees the cracks forming and tries to patch them, ultimately proving that individual decency, no matter how profound, rarely stands a chance against hardships of reality. ☀︎༄.° I would seriously give anything to be a kid again running free around town with my friends. That feeling of being young and carefree is something I'll crave forever.* ☀︎༄.° in the summertime list! ⛅️