Bria Vinaite

Halley seems to have no patience left for being judged in The Florida Project (2017), and Bria Vinaite does not ask us to find that charming. She makes the young mother abrasive enough to be difficult company, even when we understand the financial desperation behind her behaviour. It is a strong performance with a wearing quality that belongs to the character. There is affection for her daughter, but affection does not settle our doubts about what Halley can manage.

Sean Baker's direction and his screenplay with Chris Bergoch give that difficulty room rather than tidying it away. They do not require Halley to become conveniently likeable before taking her circumstances seriously. Vinaite's work alongside Brooklynn Prince matters here: the bond between mother and daughter gives us something to care about when Halley's manner wears us down. We were worried for the child because Vinaite makes her mother's love clear without reassuring us that she can cope. The performance works because that worry survives the warmth.

This was Vinaite's professional acting debut, and Baker had found her through Instagram in 2016. It is tempting to treat Halley as a personality he happened to discover, which gives too little credit to the work of making affection and hostility credible in the same person. Subsequent work includes Darmi in the second season of The OA (2019) and supporting parts in Lost Transmissions (2019) and Balance, Not Symmetry (2019). We would not use those credits alone to declare what sort of actor she has become.

The risk is that casting directors keep asking her to repeat Halley, a concern she has herself expressed. We would like to see what she does with a part that gives the tenderness more space. Another role built chiefly around confrontation would be a rather narrow response to the affection she makes convincing here. Start with The Florida Project, but do not mistake its difficult mother for the limits of the actor.