Eyes of a child

The end credits of The Florida Project make the following disclaimer: “This film was not authorized, sponsored, endorsed, produced, distributed, or in any way officially associated with the Walt Disney Company.” Say what? No one who watches this film about an impoverished mother and daughter will likely feel an ounce of concern for the Magic Kingdom’s welfare.

The story takes place in and around a budget Orlando hotel a couple of stoplights down the highway from Disney World’s gates. In documentary style, writer-director Sean Baker peers into the unglamorous lives of the (fictional) long-term residents of the (real) Magic Castle Inn, but neither lionizes nor shames his characters. For the most part, the film centers on Moonee (a talented 7-year-old Brooklynn Prince) and her loving but immature mother, Halley (Bria Vinaite). Moonee and her friends spend the summer roaming the hotel and environs. They play under stairwells, hit up tourists for handouts, and get under the feet of hotel manager and handyman Bobby (Oscar-nominated Willem Dafoe).

That Baker sticks with Moonee’s carefree perspective has led some movie critics to call the film a celebration of childhood. But why buffer viewers? We should, even if the children don’t, dread the highway and each doorway. Sure, there’s Bobby, who acts as the children’s guardian angel. He evicts a prostitute, gently persuades a nude poolside sunbather to cover up, and runs off a likely pedophile. (The film, recently released on DVD, is rated R for drug use, disturbing behavior, and expletives—often from the children.) Still, Bobby can’t fix everything.

Halley and Moonee’s precarious existence begins to collapse: Their sources of free food dry up, and Halley’s quasi-legit moneymaking schemes falter. There is one other “profession” Halley could turn to. What would this mean for Moonee? And what does this film mean for the countless other children like Moonee trapped in physical and spiritual poverty throughout America? They’re all around us, if we have eyes to see.