A Buddhist’s Perspective on The Florida Project (note: I started this review a month ago, but didn’t finish it until now)

June 19, 2020

Categories: Buddhism, movies

After watching the 2017 film The Florida Project, I am still trying to breathe like normal again, because throughout the film I kept holding my breath. It is a deep film set in a motel near a highway around Disney World (specifically in Kissimmee, a city in Florida) and follows the adventures of six-year-old Mooney and her two friends Scooty and Janey. I had been meaning to see this movie for a while, especially because Willem Dafoe got nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and the clip they showed during the nominees presentation was so powerful. Frankly, I think this award should have gone to Willem Dafoe, but then again I didn’t see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri yet, so I can’t say anything about Sam Rockwell’s win. Or at least it should have gotten some kind of Academy Award.

For some backstory, The Florida Project got its name because Walt Disney World, an entertainment complex, used to be called “The Florida Project” as a supplement to Disneyland in Anaheim, California during the 1960s. The movie is important to watch because it paints a different side of the magical Disney World (then again, this video shows how Disney hasn’t exactly been magical to its employees.) It takes place in a motel, in a low-income area, and Mooney and her friends find themselves often going to abandoned housing projects and breaking things, tampering with the electricity system of the motel, and asking strangers for money so they can buy themselves ice cream. Meanwhile, Mooney’s mom, Halley, is a struggling sex worker trying to pay Bobby, the hotel manager, her rent on time but falling behind each time. Her friend, Ashley, works full time at a diner and steals food from the kitchen to give to Mooney and her friends because she doesn’t want to ruin her friendship with Halley by saying “no.” However, things take a turn with their friendship when Scooty, Ashley’s son, breaks things in the abandoned housing project with Mooney and Jancey and lights a pillow on fire, burning the entire place up. Even though people are out cheering and calling the old place a dump, Ashley knows that Florida Department for Children and Families (DCF) will come for her and her son for what he did, so she keeps Scooty from playing anymore with Mooney and Jancey while also distancing herself from Halley because she didn’t prevent Mooney from doing what she and her friends did.

While I did at first have some sympathy for Halley’s struggle, I noticed there was a major difference in how Halley handled it and how Ashley handled it. Even though the film focused on Halley and Bobby, there’s a lot to be said about how Ashley deals with Halley’s shenanigans. Ashley is a woman of color and Halley is white. Halley was able to get off scot-free while Ashley, who doesn’t benefit from white privilege, was aware that she would be the one getting in trouble (10.10.21: looking back, I don’t want to assume anything about the race of these characters, but it was just an observation I made while watching the film that may or may not be true.) This difference makes itself more prominent at the diner scene, when Halley and Mooney go to the diner Ashley works at. Halley is angry that Ashley is keeping Scooty from playing with Mooney and Jancey, and is also angry when Ashley tells her she doesn’t allow Mooney and Jancey to steal food from her anymore because she is getting in trouble for it at work, and so Halley cusses her out and gives her a hard time, letting Mooney order all this food and then having a burping content with Mooney in the diner while eating. This shows the racial disparity between the two women in their experiences; even though both Halley and Ashley live in poverty and both are struggling to work and provide for their kids, Halley does not think twice about the consequences of her actions while Ashley doesn’t get to get off as easily. This also impacts how they tell their kids about the realities of what they are dealing with. When Ashley finds out about the abandoned houses setting fire, she reprimands Scooty and tells him that the DFC will come for them because of what he did. Halley, however, refuses to tell Mooney the truth and tries to hide it from her, thinking that as a six-year-old Mooney won’t be able to understand what is going on (even though, at some point, she was going to have to find out anyway.) She still acts as if Mooney shouldn’t take responsibility for participating in the fire, and lashes out at anyone who criticizes her for not taking responsibility. She takes Mooney on all these adventures around town, taking her to stores and restaurants where they get to act up and cuss people out.

The dynamics in Halley and Ashley’s friendship get even starker when Halley comes to Ashley’s room to apologize and asks for financial help, and Ashley laughs in her face because she knows Halley has been bringing clients to her motel room for sex work even though she is not supposed to bring unauthorized guests to her room, and tells her she can pay her rent herself. Halley takes this as an insult though and beats up her friend very badly. Even when the DFC finally comes to Halley’s apartment because of her neglect of Mooney and her illegally bringing clients to her room, Halley denies she did anything wrong. When Mooney asks what is wrong, who the adults are outside her and her mom’s apartment and why they are screaming at each other, and why DFC is taking her to live with another family, none of the adults take the time to explain the situation to her. None of them feel she will understand what is going on, so they keep trying to convince her that everything will be okay and to just stop talking and come with them, even though the situation is clearly not okay and Mooney will be in fact taken away from her mom. Ashley seems to be the only adult in the film who tells it like it is to her kid; the other adults try to implant this idea in their kids’ minds that poverty is an adult issue that kids shouldn’t have to grapple with.

Another important part is the scene in the middle of the film where a couple walks into the motel and tells Bobby that they looked at the pamphlet and thought they were going to be staying at Disney World. When Bobby tells them they are at Disney World, they tell him he is wrong because they expected to be staying at a nice fancy hotel (the website shows that there are a variety of places in Kissimmee for tourists. And yes, your good old Super 8 Motel is one of these places listed.) A lot of people say Disney World is the happiest place on Earth, but it’s just like anywhere else. There’s a cool episode of SGI-USA’s “The Buddha Beat,” in which people walking around Orlando answer the question, “Is Disney World the Happiest Place on Earth?”

In the video some people say yes and others say no. Some people said it wasn’t the happiest place on Earth because it is super crowded, another said that for the Disney workers walking around in the costumes it isn’t the happiest place on Earth. The interviewer then tells them that Buddhism teaches that happiness lies within you no matter where you are, and a lot of people in the interview agree with her.

In his letter “On Attaining Buddhahood in this Lifetime,” Nichiren Daishonin says the Lotus Sutra teaches that there are no two lands, pure or impure, but that “the difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds.” (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, volume 1, page 3.) Even though Mooney and her friends don’t have much money, they find happiness where they are, and they also treasure their friendship with one another even when the adults in their lives are dealing with stressful situations. I can’t relate to the situations of the characters in the movie, let alone the real-life residents of Kissimmee. But as one reviewer of the film put it, The Florida Project doesn’t sentimentalize poverty or try to send in someone to save Mooney, Halley or any of the other people living in the motel. It shows people just living life, challenges and all. Which is probably why, as many reviewers have said, the Oscars snubbed the film. As Heather Dockray, the author of a Mashable review on The Florida Project, rightfully calls out: “Oscar voters don’t historically like to look at women who are poor, especially when they are asked to stare their poverty head-on.” (Dockray, Mashable) Dockray explains that award-winning films about poor people, such as Precious and The Blind Side, often show a savior coming in to rescue the poor person from their circumstances. Mariah Carey helps Gabourey Sidibe get an education and escape her abusive mom forever. Sandra Bullock adopts a homeless Black teen and magically unlocks his potential as a student and football player. However, in The Florida Project, no one is coming to adopt Mooney or save Halley, Ashley or really anyone in the motel from their problems. Even Willem Dafoe’s character fails a lot even when he’s trying to help Halley. He can’t rescue her from her problems, especially when he’s dealing with his own. The women try to look out for each other, but due to their circumstances it’s hard because they are all just trying to survive.