Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Florida Project Blu-ray Movie Review

The kids are definitely not alright.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 19, 2018

If you’ve ever wondered what taking a trip to the so-called Happiest Place on Earth with David Lynch might be like (and who among us hasn’t?), there’s a pretty good cinematic equivalent to be found in the startling if often nonsensical Escape from Tomorrow, certainly one of the more gonzo outings I’ve had show up in my review queue over the many years I’ve been doing this. As bizarre as the actual content of Escape from Tomorrow was, as those who have read our Escape from Tomorrow Blu-ray review may recall, it was actually the guerrilla filming techniques utilized by director Randy Moore and his crew which really put the film on the radar of many viewers. Disneyland and Walt Disney World evidently have very strict rules prohibiting the filming of features on their grounds, and so Moore and his cast and crew simply pretended to be “normal” park visitors as they documented the surreal adventures that suffuse that film. There’s something at least a little similar going on in the closing moments of The Florida Project, a film whose very title alludes to the “top secret” name given to Walt Disney World when it was still in development. While similar to Escape from Tomorrow in terms of its own top secret filming on the grounds of an iconic Disney owned theme park, in other ways The Florida Project is the antithesis of the earlier film, since it attempts to deal in gritty realities rather than near hallucinatory escapades. This bittersweet story revolves around a little girl named Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) who, along with her largely destitute mother Halley (Bria Vinaite), lives in a spectacularly purple motel in Orlando cheekily (and just as spectacularly inaccurately) named The Magic Castle, assumedly fairly close to Walt Disney World.

There’s an adorable sweetness to the opening of The Florida Project, which finds Moonee hanging out with her best buds Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and Dicky (Aidan Malik). That sweetness soon enough turns to at least questionable behavior when the trio takes off to a neighboring hotel, where they alight to a second floor balcony in order to have a spitting contest, the results of which coat a dilapidated car below. That vehicle turns out to belong to Stacy (Sandy Kane), who has a take no prisoners approach toward misbehavior and trots right over to The Magic Castle, where she reports the behavior to the motel’s manager Bobby Hicks (Willem Dafoe, an Academy Award nominee for Best Supporting Actor for this performance). Bobby in turn tells Halley she’d best take care of the issue, and warns her again that she’s facing eviction for smoking in her room.

Stacy is in charge of her granddaughter Jancey (Valeria Cotto), and Moonee and Jancey (are there no normal names in Orlando?) strike up a friendship. The film is kind of vignette driven, detailing the hardscrabble lives of many of these characters, while focusing mostly on the travails of Halley and Moonee. Halley is kind of a train wreck, and not exactly what one might think of as a traditional nurturing mother (to say the least), but she does have a raucous spirit that she has obviously passed down to Moonee. That said, Halley is distressingly short on the supervisory aspects of parenting, and Moonee is “adventurous”, leading to at least a couple of incidents that are either minor annoyances (turning the electricity off to the motel) or in one case an actual crime (setting fire to an abandoned condo nearby).

The Florida Project’s plot dynamics are perhaps less important than the mood the film creates and for the most part sustains. There’s a really interesting tonal dialectic at play throughout the film where the “wonder” of being a child and all that entails keeps crashing into the downtrodden reality of “real life”. The narrative “arc”, such as it is, is on the meandering side, and the film’s wind up has led to a number of responses which have varied from “WTF” to “sheer genius”, in what may remind some of how the last few moments of Birdman were received and debated by various viewers.

If the storytelling has at least a few questionable moments, The Florida Project has a slew of fantastic performances, including by a number of people who are making their feature debuts. In a way I’m actually kind of surprised that it was Dafoe who wrested an Oscar nomination for this film, for while his performance is certainly fine, it’s the work of little Prince that continually impresses throughout The Florida Project. She’s both sweet and provocative, as little kids often are, and she has a refreshing naturalness that augurs well for a continuing career. Also registering strongly is newcomer Vinaite, who is salty as all get out but who manages to also reveal Halley’s more vulnerable side.

The Florida Project Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Florida Project is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. In the "everything old is new again" category, this is now the second offering I've reviewed within just the last few days that has the Kodak logo prominently featured and which was shot on good, old fashioned celluloid. (The other title is another Lionsgate release, The Ballad of Lefty Brown.) The results here are quite lush looking at times, despite the somewhat dowdy settings the bulk of the film take place in, with a palette that is brimming with a sort of Miami Vice-esque range of tones that emphasize rather beautifully vivid purples and pinks. Detail levels are generally excellent throughout, with only a couple of minor deficits in some very dimly lit material in some of the motel and/or hotel rooms. Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation and gives the entire viewing experience a nicely "thick" looking texture that is very organic looking.

The Florida Project Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Florida Project has a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that springs to vigorous life when things like Kool and the Gang's "Celebrate" are featured, but which tends to deal more in longer dialogue scenes, where the bulk of the surround activity comes from well placed ambient environmental sounds. The many outdoor moments do offer some appealing immersion, especially since The Magic Castle is kind of weirdly next to a place where helicopters take off, flights that provide good midrange and panning activity. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

The Florida Project Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Under the Rainbow: Making The Florida Project (1080p; 22:01) is an interesting featurette which has some good behind the scenes footage, including early location scouting, table reads and interactions with the often near out of control kids.


• Cast and Crew Interviews (1080p; 49:46) include Sean Baker, Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Mela Murder, Valeria Cotto and Chris Bergoch.


• Bloopers and Outtakes (1080p; 2:46)

The Florida Project Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Not to be too pointed about it, but maybe this film should have been called The Florida Projects, given its low income housing aspect. As a tale that might be thought of as a sort of Childhood's End (so to speak), The Florida Project is both sweet and tart in about equal measure. The storytelling is a little haphazard, but performances ring true throughout. Technical merits are first rate, and The Florida Project comes Recommended.