The Florida project (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Sean Baker
	Actors: Brooklynn Prince, Brina Vinaite, Willem Dafoe, Aiden Malik, Valeria Cotto
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 19.02.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: Halley (Vinaite) lives with her six year old daughter Moonee (Prince) in a budget motel along one of the commercial strips catering to the Walt Disney World tourist clientele outside Orlando, Florida. Halley, who survives largely on welfare, has little respect for people, especially those who cross her. She passed this attitude down to Moonee, who curses and gives the finger like her mother. Although the motel's policy is not to allow long term rentals, Bobby (Dafoe), the motel manager, has made arrangements for people like Halley to live there while not undermining the policy as he realizes that many such tenants have no place to go otherwise.
Review: Depending on the point of view one could believe the movie deals with the relation mother-daughter when the mother has no income or with the free childhood. Indeed Moonee spends most of her time running around the area with her friends, not making much more than jumping, talking to people around, annoying people for playing. On the other side, she spends also time with her mother that are rather moments of tenderness and experiencing adult life than of talking. Sometimes quite chocking but seems just strange from Moonee´s point of view, like when her mother has visitors paying for her services while Moonee is playing in the bathtub. This makes a different way of showing education as well. I found the story a bit boring as many scenes are just repeating. On the other side it is a kind of idealisation of the free childhood.  The major difficulty in this kind of movies is to have children and here they look as free and natural as in the old French movies such as Les 400 coups or La guerre des boutons (the 1962 version).  You can see two of the posters of the movie. One that we can consider focusing the movie on the relation mother-daughter. Another on the free childhood.
Rating: 6 /10 Poster for a movie focused on the childhood