Film

The Florida Project

Name: The Florida Project
Genre: Drama
Released: 2017
Cast: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Rivera, Valeria Cotto

Sean Baker's fizzy, heartbreaking snapshot of a summer spent in the shadow of Disney World, seen almost entirely through the eyes of a six-year-old running wild through a purple-painted motel. It's funny, sun-bleached and disarmingly tender until it isn't — a film about American poverty that refuses to look like a message movie. For anyone who wants their heart both warmed and quietly wrecked.

TMDb rating

7.4

If you liked this

Nomadland2021

Same unsentimental tenderness toward people living on the economic edge, this time nomadic retirees instead of motel kids, with Frances McDormand doing career-best work.

But Slower and more meditative — there's no childhood energy propelling it forward, just quiet accumulation.

American Honey2016

Andrea Arnold's sprawling road movie about magazine-crew kids selling subscriptions across the Midwest has the same handheld, sun-drunk intimacy and refusal to judge its characters.

But Nearly three hours long and deliberately loose — it drifts rather than drives, which can test patience.

Beasts of the Southern Wild2012

Another astonishing child performance carrying a film about poverty and resilience, this one dipped in myth and bayou magic rather than motel pastel.

But Leans harder into fantasy and allegory — if you wanted the grounded realism, this may feel like a different animal.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The 400 Blows1959

Both follow a child moving through an indifferent adult world with a camera that stays low and curious rather than pitying — Baker didn't invent this gaze, he inherited it.

Truffaut's semi-autobiographical film about a neglected Parisian boy invented the wandering, child's-eye camera that Sean Baker is clearly working in the tradition of — same freedom, same ache underneath it.

But Black-and-white, in French, and considerably more austere — it asks patience Florida Project never does.

Tangerine2015no page yet

Baker's earlier film, shot on iPhones, has the same electric, empathetic chaos following trans sex workers through one wild Christmas Eve in Los Angeles.

But Rawer and more frenetic, with none of the softness — it's a sprint, not a summer.

Moonlight2016

A poetic, three-part portrait of a boy growing up poor and unseen in Miami, told with the same visual tenderness toward people society looks past.

But Far more formally controlled and melancholic — there's little of the loose, improvisational childhood joy.

Short Term 122013

Set in a group home for at-risk teens, it finds the same mix of warmth, humor, and looming crisis among people the system has failed.

But More plot-driven and therapy-adjacent, trading Moonee's wandering freedom for tighter institutional structure.

Winter's Bone2010

A teenage girl navigating rural poverty and absent parents with fierce self-reliance — the flip side of childhood innocence this film explores from the other direction.

But Bleaker and more thriller-adjacent, with almost none of the sunlit humor that makes Florida Project bearable.

The Rider2018

Another Sean-Baker-adjacent, non-actor-cast slice of overlooked America, following an injured rodeo rider with the same patient, documentary-like tenderness.

But Much quieter and more internal — a character study rather than an ensemble of chaotic kids.

Lean on Pete2018

A teenage boy's odyssey through economic precarity and absent adults, with the same eye for America's overlooked corners and unglamorous kindness.

But Grimmer and more solitary — the childhood wonder curdles into survival much faster.

Streetwise1984

It's the nonfiction ancestor of Baker's aesthetic: the same motels, the same kids performing resilience for a camera that refuses to look away or moralize.

A documentary following homeless teenagers in Seattle, shot with the same unglamorous intimacy and dark humor — real kids, real motels, no script softening the edges.

But Unstaged and unresolved in ways fiction never has to be — there's no narrative arc to soften what you're watching.

Paper Moon1973

Same core situation — a resourceful child bound to a charming, unstable adult, surviving on America's economic margins — but told as breezy comic caper rather than slow-building tragedy.

A con man and a possibly-his-daughter grift their way across Depression-era America in this warm, wry, black-and-white comedy — same theme of a child adrift with an unreliable adult, played for laughter instead of dread.

But Genuinely funny and comparatively cozy — if you wanted the encroaching sense of dread, this won't deliver it.