When the American filmmaking market allows room for its auteurs, it is gems like The Florida Project that sparkle out. Sean Baker, already known for the great 2015 Tangerine is a highly kinetic director, moving both camera and story with great craft between characters, plot and subplots, text and subtext.
We’re in the middle of profound America, led by the small steps of a crazy group of 5 year olds, living with their single mothers in the classical American motel, on the outskirts of a Disneyland park. The colours are saturated, highly controlled, the settings feel surreal, the camera shoots from ground level-up and you’re experiencing a 2 hour sugar rush. It’s a film about childhood in Trump’s America, a commentary on everything fake, on hustling and sneaking and sweet-talking (or shouting) your way out of trouble.
Innovative, consequence-free, editing: scene 2 after scene 1 doesn’t push the story forward but rather enlarges it to capture more of the universe. Bravo!