The Florida Project is the most gritty, real movie since the movie Kids. It's the most powerful movie since Pan's Labyrinth. If you are a movie fan, this is a must see.

When you don't know much of the topic, I can imagine it being a good movie but if you do it's somewhat boring to watch

The Florida Project is one of those movies that you just can't seem to look away from. Overall, I am not unhappy that I watched it (although I was initially), but it is not one I will be watching many times over. In an interview Sean Baker talks about the empathy we feel for the mother and I'm sorry to say that I felt none for her because the filmmaker didn't let me. If they had allowed me to meet people in Halley's life that knew her before she ended up like this, it would have humanized her. I felt nothing for the mother (Halley) other than disapproval. Moonee was hard to like throughout the film and the only reason I felt anything for her is purely the fact that she is a child in a situation that you would never want a child to be in. I don't think Baker did a good job directing her performance except for the last sequence.The character I latched onto the most was William Dafoe's character because he was written with such a complexity and played in such a raw way that I was enamored throughout. The only reason this film came up at the Oscars was because of him clearly. I have heard it compared to Barry Jenkins' Moonlight and my instant reaction is to push back on that. Moonlight was able to craft the coming of age tale in a creative and fresh way. Moonlight immersed you in real scenarios of pain and struggle as one of the characters. Meanwhile, The Florida Project made me feel often as a fly on the wall in the scenes I was more of an observer than embodying the character which made me just want to call the police and end the movie. The most interesting concept the film touches on is kids growing up so close to "the happiest place on earth," but never going there and living in quite the opposite. It did a good job of plunging you into the area of the highway most people just pass right by. I love that the ending doesn't wrap up in a nice little bow and I like some of the scenes that explore childhood shenanigans. I don't hate that this film exists, I think it is important that filmmakers explore this style of cinema veritas, but they can't forget that there still needs to be an affective screenplay (something that I heard Baker often deviates from). In my opinion this movie was close to being something great, but instead is just good. Adding some complexity rather than stubbornness to main characters would have helped.

I eventually gave up on this movie.. The 'local color' was interesting for a bit. But I got the feeling there was no script, just felt like someone's home movie, wandering here and there. Yes, the kids were interesting a bit.. But the truth is, I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters.I'm seeing a lot of other good review here.. but I felt like it was a waste of time