The Florida Project
2017 · Directed by Sean Baker
Original language: English
- drama
The story
The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.
What it’s like
Saturated Florida summer light, pastel motels in violet and tangerine, and a camera that mostly sits at the height of a child, so the world looks enormous and slightly off-kilter. Sean Baker shoots much of it on 35mm-era textures with a vivid, almost candy-bright palette that clashes pleasingly against the cracked asphalt and sun-faded signage of the highway strip. Long, loose handheld takes follow kids running barefoot through parking lots, ice cream sticky in the heat, while the soundtrack is mostly ambient traffic, cicadas, and the hum of ice machines, with a few sparse, wistful cues. The vibe is bittersweet and buoyant at once: joyful sun-drenched play sitting over a steady undercurrent of unease. Pacing is loose and observational, drifting like a summer afternoon, with a tender, unsentimental register. It is coming-of-age told from a child's vantage, with a young girl's bright, mischievous energy meeting a frayed, struggling single mother in a shifting, unsettled home. Drug use and its fallout appear in quiet, non-graphic glimpses; violence is rare and brief, and nothing is gory. Best for people who want something tender, honest and visually striking, and who can sit with sadness that stays gentle rather than sensational.
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