The Florida Project

Slightly better than Baker's previous film. The Florida Project is an interesting attempt to deliver a social drama within a candy-colored world, but the execution isn't polished enough to pull it off. The setting and characters may be pretty colorful, but there's a big disconnect with the overall cinematography.

We follow Moonee, a young girl who lives with her mom in a rundown hotel, close to Disneyland. The place looks happy and cheerful on the outside, but the people living there are scraping to get by just the same. Moonee's mom struggles to pay the rent, while Moonee tries to have a good time with the kids in the neighborhood.

The drama isn't too heavy, but there's also not happening too much in the first 90 minutes. That's not a big deal if you care for the characters, or if you think the contrast between the setting and the drama is big enough, but neither of that really worked for me. It's not a terrible film, just not a very successful one.