Image Credit: Cannes Film Festival
I talk about films a lot.
Actually, I talk about films most of the time. But there’s one film I always come back to again and again. The Florida Project.
From the very first time I watched it. I knew it would stay with me. The vibrant cinematography and immersive soundtrack. The raw performances and striking visual style came together to create something truly I will never forget. I’ve always had a soft spot for coming of age films but this one didn’t just hit me… it topped them all!
The Florida Project follows six year old Moonee, Brooklynn Prince, a mischievous and spirited girl living with her young, struggling mother Halley, Bria Vinaite in a budget motel just outside the gates of Walt Disney world in Orlando Florida.
Over one summer we experience the world through Moonee’s eyes. Filled with adventure, rebellion, and innocence, even as the realities of poverty and instability unfold quietly in the background.
Willem Dafoe also stars in a quietly powerful, his Oscar-nominated role as Bobby, the motel’s manager. He’s a grounded and parental figure who is strict when needed but ultimately caring toward the children and families living under his watch.
The premise isn’t unfamiliar. So what makes this film stand out?
For me it’s how perfectly it captures the feeling of being a child. You are completely unaware, or at least untouched by the weight of adult problems. There’s something deeply captivating about how the film lets you live inside Moonee’s bubble. One that is filled with laughter mischief, and wonder even while hardship lurks just outside the frame.
My friend once said, ‘Moonee is such an annoying kid,’ and I couldn’t agree more but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? She is a kid. She does what kids do runs around barefoot, eats ice cream with her friends, explores abandoned buildings, and finds joy in the most mundane things. I fear if that is annoying, I may have been an absurdly annoying kid.
These scenes may seem ordinary but beneath them lies a harsh truth. They are eating ice cream sure… but they don’t have enough money to buy it themselves. They’re care free, but their world is crumbling just out of view.
And that’s what makes the film so effective in my opinion! It never forces a message on you. It simply lets you feel it through Moonee’s perspective and experience it. Everything drenched in color and energy, reflecting the best parts of childhood!
It reminds me of my own younger days. When I was playing in the streets without a care in the world and completely oblivious to the adult struggles around me. Every time I rewatch it that bittersweet feeling creeps back in.
Then there’s the ending, easily one of the most haunting scenes I’ve ever seen.
After child protective services arrive to take Moonee away from her mother she bursts into tears and runs to her best friend, Jancey, in a moment of raw desperation.
What follows is a sudden and surreal shift. The film’s gritty realism gives way to a dreamlike escape, as the two girls flee, hand in hand, past crowds and brightly coloured walls and all the way to the gates of Walt Disney World which somehow impossibly.
Shot covertly on an iPhone, the scene is intentionally ambiguous. Is it real? Or is it a last spark of imagination… a final burst of fantasy from a child whose reality has become too heavy to bear? That uncertainty paired with the emotional weight of the moment makes it unforgettable.
What makes the ending even more powerful is the acting. Especially from Brooklynn Prince, who delivers one of the most emotionally raw performances I’ve ever seen from a child actor.
In that final scene, when Moonee realises she’s being taken away. The break down she has is so real and unfiltered that it doesn’t feel like acting at all. You see the panic in her face, the confusion, the heartbreak and she’s crying but it’s not a clean or a cinematic cry. It’s just messy, guttural, and deeply human and as the audience you feel deeply for me. Her voice cracks and her breath shortens and you can feel the weight of the moment in every movement she makes.
Her run to Jancey isn’t just a physical escape. I think it’s a desperate plea to hold onto the one stable joyful part of her world. And Valeria cotto, who plays jancey, says nothing in that moment but her silence is just as powerful and moving. She simply listens and holds Moonee’s hand, and runs with her. That wordless exchange between the two girls says everything. They don’t need dialogue because the emotion is already overflowing on our screen.
It’s incredibly rare to see child actors carry that level of emotional depth and still feel completely authentic. Nothing about the scene feels rehearsed or staged. It’s one of those moments where you forget youre watching a film and that’s a testament to both Sean baker’s direction and the extraordinary performances he pulled from such young and non-professional actors.
That final shot might be ambiguous in meaning but the emotions behind it are crystal clear and it’s the acting that makes it land so painfully beautifully.
It’s a film that lingers with you. It reminds you of what it was like to be young, innocent, and unaware. Unfortunately, until the world forces you to see otherwise.
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