...The Florida Project

I have this thing where, every year, I attempt to see every film that nabs a major Oscar nomination. I love movies. I love going to movies. So for me, this is fun. But there are always stragglers, those movies I'm struggling to get to prior to the awards ceremony. These are generally small films that were barely released in Houston, or foreign films that didn't come out in Houston.

That brings me to today, and a film called "The Florida Project."

"The Florida Project" came out in Houston sometime last year around October or November. It played in only a few theaters, and it was only around for a week or so. This is a movie I would normally have seen in the theater. It had great reviews, it came from a releasing company called A24 that releases only a few films a year, but those movies are always interesting. But I was working a lot when it came out, and it disappeared from the theaters in Houston before I could see it.

The only big name in the cast is Willem Dafoe. And it's because of Willem Dafoe that I got around to renting this off iTunes because Dafoe got a Best Supporting Oscar nomination for the movie. It's the film's only nomination, it only came to video a few weeks ago, so it became the last of the major Oscar movies I will see.

Before I get to a summary, let me say this: I love this movie. I think it is one of the best movies that I have seen in several years. It's fun, yet tinged with sadness. It's small in scale, yet shot on gorgeous 35mm film with vivid colors that fill the screen. The acting is strong. The story moving. I knew how it was going to end, and I didn't care.

"The Florida Project" in short, is the story of one summer in the life of a mischievous six-year old girl living in a motel on the outskirts of Walt Disney World. She lives with her mother, who is unemployed and perpetually short of money. There are several families like this at the motel, though it is policy that families cannot take up permanent residence because it is supposed to be a motel for tourists visiting Disney.

The six-year old is named Moonee. She has several friends, and there are large portions of the movie which consist of just following Moonee and her friends as they go about the day. They roam the motels dotting the road to the Disney. They stalk the souvenir shops and beg for food and generally just make pests of themselves. But the view point of the movie is primarily of the kids, so we don't see them making do while living in poverty, we see them having fun and exploring the world.

The mother, Halley, is a mess. She's heavily tattooed, does drugs, and starts to turn tricks out of her motel room to pay bills. She alienates her friends and angers her allies. But the movie refuses to turn her into the proverbial bad guy. It's clear that she loves her daughter, it's evident that she believes she is doing the best that she can. And when Moonee is taken her from at the end of the film, the heartbreak is evident.

Moonee is played by a young actress named Brooklynn Prince. She is a delight. The entire cast is good, and for the most part, that cast is full of unknowns you and I have never heard of. But then there's Willem Dafoe. Dafoe's one of those guys who has seemingly been around forever. He's been in great films, and he's been in a lot of crap. He's one of those guys who is always working. And it's Dafoe's character who makes this movie work.

Dafoe plays Bobby, the manager of the motel. There's real humanity in his work. He has to act gruff, he has to be angry and exasperated, but then there are his eyes and you see compassion and a desire to do right and to help out these families who have found themselves stranded in his motel. He's a lifeline they're clinging to as they try to hold on to a semblance of respect, and he does what he can to let them keep that respect. The agony in his face in his last shot of the film still lingers though the film is long over.

"The Florida Project" sounds depressing. And it is. Yet when Moonee and her friends on their adventures, it's a blast of fun as we experience yet again the joys of childhood and the joys of summer.

The film is directed by Sean Baker (written by Baker and Chris Bergoch). There are no wasted words in the script. There are long stretches of silence and ambient noise and you just watch, enthralled. And it's a beautiful movie to watch. It's shot in wide screen and splashed with bright colors -- the motel is painted purple. Lots of the action takes place in the bright sun. There's a night scene where a birthday is celebrated in a grass field as Disney World fireworks explode in the sky.

I've seen all of the Best Supporting Oscar nominees and I believe that Dafoe's performance was the best. But it's not showy. There are no emotional outbursts. And there's nothing like what happened with Christoper Plummer who was brought in a month before "All the Money in the World" was released so as that that movie's director, Ridley Scott, could remove Kevin Spacey from the film.

If you get the chance, rent this film (I got it on iTunes, but I believe it is also currently available to rent on Amazon and the DVD/Blu-Ray should be hitting Red Box, etc. in a week or so.) I can't believe that I almost missed this movie. I'm glad that I didn't.