Underplayed Gems

The Florida Project (2017)

The Florida Project poster
Directed by
Sean Baker
Genre
drama film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 55m
Rated
R
Rating
7.4 of 10 from 3,121 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A six-year-old girl spends her summer playing with friends around a budget motel in Florida. Her unemployed single mother struggles to pay rent and keep them housed.

unflinchingpoignantsun-drenchedobservationalbittersweetgrittyinnocentslice-of-life

What happens

The Florida Project is a 2017 American drama film directed by Sean Baker, written by Baker and Chris Bergoch, and starring Bria Vinaite in her film debut, Brooklynn Prince, and Willem Dafoe, with Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, and Caleb Landry Jones in supporting roles. It was many of the cast members' first film appearance. The slice of life plot focuses on the summertime adventures of a six-year-old girl who lives with her unemployed single mother in a budget motel in Kissimmee, Florida. Their struggle to make ends meet and stave off homelessness takes place in a realistic environment near Walt Disney World, which was code-named "The Florida Project" during its planning stages. It juxtaposes this with the local residents' less glamorous day-to-day lives and the children's joyful adventures as they explore and make the most of their surroundings while remaining blissfully ignorant of the hardships their adult caretakers face. The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, and was released theatrically in the United States by A24 on October 6, 2017. It was acclaimed by critics, who praised the performances and Baker's direction; Vinaite earned particular acclaim for her performance. Prince's work earned her a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer, while Dafoe was judged to have given "his finest performance in recent memory", receiving Best Supporting Actor nods at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and BAFTA Awards. Both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute named The Florida Project one of the top ten films of the year. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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