"you're a liar!"
snipped some parts of my movie review of the movie The Florida Project (2017) by Sean Baker.
!! spoilers ahead
context: the movie follows a 6-year-old girl named moonee and her daily life in a cheap motel near disneyland with her best friends and young single mom halley.
[--] halley and moonee walk back to their place. the DCF (Department of Children and Families) and the cops were there. halley pack up moonee’s stuff in a duffle bag and she was spaced out and taking her time doing so. moonee was wary of the strangers talking nice to her but still followed, not cooperative, she didn't want to talk.
i knew she had a growing feeling in her gut that she doesn’t like the more she follows them.
when she said bye to one of her best friends, scooty, he said “they’re taking you to another family”. this confirmed the sickening feeling in moonee’s stomach. she started to back up from these strangers and yanked her hand away when they tried to hold her hand. it escalated and she yelled
“you’re a liar!" the DCF was trying to calm her down and tried to reach for monee and she swats the hand away "stop! you. have. to. stop!" the camera angle makes it so heartbreaking because moonee was looking up to this looming stranger that she doesn't have a good feeling with and they're going to take her.
by this point, i can only imagine how erratic her thoughts were. she had big emotions flooding her and she just wants to get away. so she escapes and runs away from the motel and to her friend from another motel. she knocked hard at their door, whimpering, body language frantic and looking behind her. jancey opened the door and it was too much for moonee she broke down. "moonee you're scaring me" jancey says seeing her best friend wailing. and oh my goodness bless the actress of moonee, she was crying so hard she hiccuped “i can’t say it” when she said that, she actually cannot say her lines because she was too upset but they included it in the movie and it just shows raw emotions. it was such a heartbreaking scene.
[--] technical stuff
- camera angles are true to a child's perspective.
- i also like the wide shots where the setting is centred in the camera. for instance, the whole front of the building, and the three tiny kids walking at the bottom of the screen. the camera behind scooty's head as we are looking from his perspective and he watches halley beat up his mom.
- i’d say the camera angles were mostly realistic. like still-realism. the camera is kept still on the ground filming while movement happens with the characters. static shot. that's the term.
- and ooh the colors. i love the bright purple building they were staying at. it was kind of like the north star of the film because you always see it. it’s so significant and it’s very striking.
almost like the vibrancy of colors you see as a child reflected through the building.
the color grading and setting overall carries that.
childish lenses while adult stuff was happening around.
it’s such a real film. very sad but honest to how it’s like to see the world from a child’s eyes.
final thoughts
the movie accurately portrays how it’s like to be a kid and having that feeling that there's something off and how adults are always hiding stuff from them.
“don’t worry sweetheart” “nothing baby” “get ready for a bath” “let’s go honey”
and kids are always clueless like they do know something is up and they have questions but the adults always dodge them, also because "you're too young to understand" or kids also try not to upset the adults further if they ask questions, so they keep quiet.
moonee was being lied to by these nice words. kids in general. adults say it's “temporary” but is it really? i hate that adults use deception to lure a child that favors their side, and once they’re in, the temporary was never temporary and the kid was lied to and moonee yelled what she thought when she realised this.
you're a liar!