The Florida Project (2017)

The critic calls it a modern classic with strong echoes of Ken Loach, praising its empathy, sharp observation, and natural performances. It highlights the compelling tension between children's innocent mischief and the adults' desperate struggles, culminating in an emotionally intense finale.

The Florida Project is one of the best recent films about childhood, an antithesis to Disney movies set near Walt Disney World. Baker captures vibrant colours and resilient young characters amid poverty, with remarkable performances from the non-professional cast, though the vignette structure risks repetition late on.

Baker creates a vivid, vibrant world of poverty-line families near Disney World, with exceptional direction, editing and award-worthy performances from the young leads and Willem Dafoe. It is an Oscar outsider that could surprise, empathic yet unflinching about economic realities.

Baker turns a roadside motel into the most vivid location in recent movies with a visually stunning achievement that absolutely sings. Willem Dafoe delivers one of his best performances as the long-suffering manager.

The review lauds the film's vibrant compassion and energy in depicting marginal communities. It singles out Dafoe's rich, lovable performance as the motel manager who anchors the story with quiet empathy and grandeur.

Baker maintains his focus on overlooked lives in a cheap Florida motel, drawing extraordinary performances from first-timers alongside Willem Dafoe while using vibrant pop vérité style. It is a moving, emotional masterpiece that is empathic towards its subjects but fiercely critical of the system.

Sean Baker channels Ken Loach in this gobsmackingly funny, vivid and moving drama about a bolshy mum and her daughter on the fringes of Disney World. The film builds to a bodaciously bleak ending while celebrating the characters' resilience and imagination without demonising them.

Baker finds aghast freshness and pop-mythopoeic mileage in this funny, acerbic, warmly sprawling picture of low-rent dreams, with standout turns from newcomers Vinaite and Prince alongside Dafoe.

Baker follows up Tangerine with a vibrant tale of the American lower depths centered on the magic and heartbreak of childhood in an Orlando motel. The kingdom of fantasy never looked so desperately real in this absorbing story of hustling and survival.

The exuberant, giddy film animates bankrupt lives in a discounted land with feral energy like its heroine, finding enchantments in the margins of America's moribund entertainment empire.

The film is positioned as an antidote to helicopter parenting through its depiction of a young girl's natural leadership and imaginative play amid motel life, but it veers into artificial sympathy. It offers insightful moments on class indignities yet remains emotionally inauthentic under its realist guise.

The film focuses on a young mother and her daughter living in a budget motel near Disney World, with the children's adventures contrasting the mother's struggles. The critic finds the portrayal of marginalized lives shallow and lacking depth in inner motivations.

Baker delivers a raw, exuberant and captivating portrait of childhood through the irrepressible six-year-old Moonee and her life in a seedy motel. The result is a dazzling neorealist sugar rush and a masterpiece of empathy that assembles one of the most infectious portraits of childhood seen on screen.

The critic praises Baker's sympathetic, non-judgmental portrayal of childhood innocence amid hardship in a rundown motel near Disney World. It highlights the vivid, naturalistic performances (especially from the child actors and Dafoe) and the film's compassionate, observant eye on marginal lives.

The critic highlights how the film invests the minutiae of down-and-out motel lives with bittersweet energy and significance through a child's present-tense point of view, praising the nimble direction, social contracts among characters, and thematic depth around transience and dreams. It notes some jarring moments but finds the overall approach remarkable.

The film is a superbly sympathetic, thrillingly vibrant portrait of marginalised lives that never feels like tourism from its director. It centres a child's sense of wonder amid the ironic contrast of rundown motels near Disney World.

The critic praises the vibrant, colorful portrayal of children's carefree adventures and strong performances by the young leads in this mosaic of life among the invisible homeless near Disney World. It notes the film is overlong and lacks sustained narrative drive compared to Baker's prior work.

The film tells the story of a six-year-old girl living in a shabby motel near Disney World from dual perspectives, revealing both the joy in her free-range adventures and the underlying hardship. Baker avoids condescension or exploitation in portraying poverty, creating a risky and revelatory work.

The review calls the film brilliant, buoyant, and ultimately heart-wrenching, a near-perfect follow-up to Tangerine that immerses viewers in the setting through the anarchic whims of its young protagonists. It highlights the standout child performances, visual pop of the 35mm cinematography, and a stunning finale.

Baker's film divides audiences with its freeform story of struggling families at a budget motel near Disney World, centered on a young girl's perspective and her mother's desperate efforts. It is praised for strong performances, gripping characters, and effective tonal shifts.

The critic hails the film as potentially the best of the year for its beautiful, empathetic look at children living near Disney World. They single out the authentic child performances and Willem Dafoe's kind motel manager as standout elements.

Baker delivers a vibrant, colorful, and heartbreaking slice-of-life story about a young girl and her struggling single mother living in motels near Disney World. The film is lauded for its honest portrayal of poverty, strong child performance, and tender handling of difficult themes.

Sean Baker's film is a sublime piece of optimistic filmmaking that acknowledges pain without succumbing to it. It is a powerful, unassuming story of rare emotional depth, joy, and humanity set among children and struggling adults in budget motels near Disney World.

The critic praises Sean Baker’s neorealist drama as a beautiful heartbreaker that exposes layers of privation beneath the colorful facade of motels near Disney World, following the resilient young Moonee and her struggling mother. They single out the extraordinary, natural child performance by Brooklynn Prince as one of the most noteworthy in recent memory, along with strong turns from Willem Dafoe and Bria Vinaite.

The critic praises the film's warm, colorful depiction of childhood resilience in poverty, highlighting Brooklynn Prince's standout performance as Moonee. They single out the joyful, adventurous spirit of the children as a highlight.

The Florida Project is a wondrously sad yet wonderful film largely shot from the perspective of kids, but undercut by adult realities. Baker's deceptively sunny indie captures a child's-eye view of a beautiful but precarious world with playful tone and emotional depth.

The critic praises the film's blend of joy and heartbreak, focusing on the child's perspective amid poverty, with strong performances especially from the young lead. They single out the immersive, present-tense storytelling and humane portrayal of marginal lives.