MovieChat Forums > The Florida Project (2017) Discussion > Hard to Watch, But Worth Watching

Hard to Watch, But Worth Watching

posted 4 years ago by spacecomedy (1962)
2 replies | jump to latest

This was not an easy film to watch. The behavior of some of the adults (with the exception of Bobby) was reckless and selfish. But I think it’s worth watching because it shows life for a group of people that many of us never notice. Some people dislike this film because they think it supports the lifestyle of characters like Halley, but in fact, it does the opposite. It shows you how Halley’s bad choices lead to the ultimate maternal punishment—DCF taking away Moonee. It opens a window into their lives, but it doesn’t glamorize them. Movies like Goodfellas and Trainspotting have a similar approach. They show us subcultures that most people never interact with and in all of these movies, bad decisions lead to bad ends. I see them as cautionary tales—beware the company you keep and the decisions you make…because you don’t want to wind up like these characters.

Food in Films: Moonee basically orders the entire Waffle House menu, which, let's be honest, is pretty much every kid's dream.

[–] liscarkat (16565) 3 years ago

It's a movie about disgusting, irredeemable white trash. It's just depressing.

[–] spacecomedy (1962) 3 years ago

Fully agree that it's depressing, but there's plenty of good films that are depressing (Kramer vs. Kramer, Million Dollar Baby, etc.). Most of the adult characters here were selfish, crass, and rude, but I don't think the film glorified them. If anything, it showed that terrible behavior leads to terrible results. I think that's what separates this film from a movie like "Kids" which had a lurid fascination with despicable behavior and seemed to revel it. I'd put most "torture porn" horror in the same irredeemable category.