The Florida Project – 4

A movie about a not-especially-charming brat being “raised” by a mother who lies, cheats and steals and accepts no responsibility, with the seemingly inevitable result that the mother will go off to jail and the daughter will turn into her mother. I don’t know director Sean Baker’s point, but it’s hard to have any sympathy for the mother, as she is surrounded by other single parents with no greater advantages in life who hold jobs, help their neighbors and discipline their kids. Scenes were consistently cut short, often weren’t connected to anything, and there was no plot to speak of. Only an understated performance by Willem Dafoe rose to the level of professionalism.