This post is about the movie The Florida Project. Directed by Sean Baker. Starring Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, and Willem Dafoe. You can watch the film here on Amazon Prime Video.
Pepperoni Costs Money
What lingers just beyond the most magical place on Earth and in the shadows of truth? It’s a way of living few have known and less have seen. Where joy and love still exists for some, but far from the copious American Aesthetic. A home made way by the very same hopes you know all the same. There’s a seeing to things beyond what’s been set in front of you; yet, a doing of things you have always known.
What is to be said of the aims of life when the cost of living is too much?
Prefer to listen? Hear my reading of the reflection aloud.
Contains mature themes and depictions that may be unsuitable for some viewers. Engage with discernment — viewer discretion advised.
We’re Just Playing
It’s just a game, and just some words, but the game speaks volumes and words aren’t one to play with. A tell of the places you have been and the things you know. An innocence for those who do not know better, and something more to be said for the ones who find themselves there. Making good in giving what you have to give; workings to be had in what fails to give.
Nothing beats ice cream on a Hot Florida day, as it’s play and play day after day. An accomplishment of natural growth. With a knowing of things you really shouldn’t, and a responsibility to take care of what you should. A doing of the best you can with all that you got, and your best is really all that you’ve got. Time and time again you tell it how it is; a lobby full of kids, and you’re not welcome.
A sight obscene with too much to look after, but you go on without a thought, with many to look after. They can’t tell why it’s time to go, there’s a giving away of things to make space for what’s to come. It’s on to the next and the day never changes.
No Wonder You’re In This Situation
There’s innocence, then there’s the opposite of the sort, one that’s not to be confused for a lack of virtue. You protect what’s worth protecting, and give effort to what’s worth your time. You can’t give them everything, but there’s something you can give. A protection for starters, where some have been left abandoned. Where fires break out, and fights do too, a seeing to things as candid.
An expression of feeling, one that gives in, where composers break and hearts wane thin. You can only try so much, but it’s no way to live, and you’re sure to run out once you can’t make it. Desperate times masked by make pretend, to wash away your problems, to meet your own ends. The rain pours too but soon it passes, with hopes of gold at the end of the rainbow. To make special a single moment, with not much to make, is a moment worth its wish and one specially made.
Tipped Over and Still Growing
Trees that tip over with roots still grounded, grow despite having lost their way. In part there’s a fragrance of endearment to innocence, yet, a seeing of reprehension dwarfs intent. How long does one grow in what gently breezes by, to bring about a semblance of peace? At some point it must be pruned, not against the tree but for its own good, and maybe too, for the good of those who cross its path, making way for something new.
Maybe this is all something of an adventure, with the rain pouring when you least expect it. To see the things you have not seen, and cross the lines you never should. It’s not good for you, it’s not good for them. Hurt people, hurt people, in time it must meet its end. It’s worth to question how you spend your days, it’s worth the try to make it a special day.
Try your best for them, turn it around to make things better. No harm no foul in what they don’t know, but too little too late for what now is obvious. On some level you know what’s needed, but like hell you do. To take your kid, and you’re to calm down? You’re unfit, and how are they? Not knowing if you’ll see them again. Screaming, rushing, goodbyes, and cursing. So run away — to the most magical place on Earth.
To The Believer
How are we to make sense of this? What are we to perceive? Is it the lack of choices in our beginnings or the choices we make as we venture to our life’s end? It’s both, and some, parietal, but neither. We fall short, we all do and always will, and there is no one life greater or better than another.
There are some who know a life like this — this I have known and too I have seen. Do not revile others who find themselves here; neither, accept that it must go on. Know that all things we can not know, but in knowing of good things, that aids us in being.
“Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires….but as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”
Micah 7:1,7
Credit: Script and select images used in this post are from The Florida Project (© A24 and Scanbox Entertainment). Included for reflective commentary and thematic analysis.
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This post was all about the movie The Florida Project.
