What if life gave you no other choice but to become a child of a teenage mother who doesn’t know any better than flipping off people who have wronged her, what if that is the only thing she taught you? Directed by Sean Baker, the American drama film titled “The Florida Project” focuses on the adventures of a young girl living with her unemployed mother in a motel in Kissimmee, where they struggle to make ends meet and often have to starve.
Produced by Sean Baker and Chris Bergoch, the film stars Willem Dafoe playing Bobby Hick’s role, the motel’s manager, Brooklynn Limberly playing Moonee’s role, Halley’s six-year-old daughter, Bria Vinaite playing Halley’s role, Moonee’s mother living in a budget motel, Valeria Cotto playing Jncey’s role, Moonee’s friend.
The movie did quite well amongst the audience with a box office collection of $11.3 M with an initial investment of $2 M, as most of the slice-of-life movies don’t do well amongst the audience. The film offered the viewers a colorfully empathetic look into the lives of the underrepresented part of the population which left the viewers speechless due to the movie providing a glimpse of people living in modern America.
William Dafoe’s performance as Bobby Hicks, the hotel’s manager in the film was greatly appreciated by the audience as his portrayal of an empathetic old man who helps people belonging to unfortunate sections of society was perfect.
The Florida Project – Premise
The movie starts with Dicky, a young boy in Kissimmee, running to his friends, Scooty and six-year-old Moonee, before bringing them to Future Land, a nearby seedy motel where the three kids continue to run to the second floor to start spitting on a car parked just below the motel.
Stacy, the owner of the car, steps out and reprimands the kids, just as Moonee spits on Jancey, Stacy’s granddaughter, causing a conflict due to Stacy being infuriated by the kid’s actions before getting Bobby, the hotel’s manager, to knock on Moone’s door as she has already confronted Dicky’s father who informed her about Moonee and Scooty pulling these kinds of stunts often,
Moonee lives with Halley, her young single mother at Magic Castle Inn & Suite, that is a budget-friendly motel in Kissimmee near Walt Disney World where she spends most of her summer unsupervised causing mischievous with her close friend Scooty, whom Halley is supposed to babysit while his mother works at a diner.
Dicky gets grounded by her dad after Jancey’s grandmother, Stacey complaint about him and his friends spitting on her car while Moone, with Scooty, befriends Jancey. Meanwhile, Halley lost her job as an exotic dancer recently after she refused to agree to perform sexual favors for clients but her unemployment has started to affect her eligibility for TANF benefits.
Ashley helps Halley by providing her with food she gets while working at her job, and Halley starts selling cheap knock-off perfumes to tourists in the parking lot to make end meets and pay the rent. Meanwhile, Moonee and Scooty show Jancey around the neighborhood while teaching her to get her way and ice cream by begging the wealthy tourists visiting the Magic castle.
The children are a regular inconvenience for Boby, the hotel manager of Magic Castle, as they would often pull stunts like shutting the motel’s power but Bobby continues to love and be protective of them. Bobby often seeks help from his son, Jack to perform his duties, including preparing a budget report, doing repairs, and ejecting drug dealers.
This leads to a decline in Halley’s financial condition due to Ashley withdrawing her offer to provide free food and the hotel’s security guards preventing her from selling the knockoff perfumes.
Things turn worse for Halley, and she is forced to begin soliciting sex work online while keeping her daughter locked in the bathroom with loud music to prevent her from seeing her vulnerable state when she steals a client’s Disney World resorts pass and he demands his property back that led to loud arguing between the pair, Halley almost gets evicted.
Halley beats Ashley in front of her son, Scooty, after she criticizes her for performing sexual favors to earn money after a desperate Halley apologizes to her and requests to borrow money.
The following day, the DCF investigators arrive to question Halley and her daughter separately before making a decision on Moonee that leads to Halley giving up her weed, but as luck would have it the investigators figured that Halley does sex work, thus making the final decision of removing Moonee from her care.
The film ends with Jancey holding hands with distressed Moonee before the friends run off to Magic Kingdom’s theme park after Moone comes to say her final goodbyes to her friends following the DCF’s investigators’ decision to put her in the foster care system.
The Florida Project: Filming Locations
1. Kissimmee, Florida
Know for its vacation home and alligators living in harmony with crocodiles, a captivating city in Florida, United States, Kissimmee, was used by the production crew of The Florida Project for the filming of almost the entire film.
Magic Castle Inn & Suites, Kissimmee, was used to film the entire Magic Castle part along with the end scene where Jancey runs with Moonee, and Mr. Quick Restaurant in Florida was used to film the part with Ashley’s workplace. The place where Ashley used to work and get free food for herself and Halley was filmed at the location.
Holiday Inn, Calypso, and Kissimmee were used by the crew to film the part where Halley used to sell knock-off perfumes in hotel parking lots, and Windermere Cay, Winter Garden, was used by the crew to film the part with the birthday firework. Wrlo Bronson Memorial, Kissimmee was used by the crew to film the part where Bobby tries to help Halley and her young daughter.
