'Florida Project' a charming (yet heart-wrenching) look at the American dream lost

<b>“The Florida Project” - ★ ★ ★ ★ </b>

Not too far from the gates of the Walt Disney World Resort, where families are promised “enchanted escapes” and where day tickets start at $99 a person, is a discount motel called The Magic Castle.

It's painted in garish shades of lavender and amethyst. The ice machine is broken. The washer and dryer often are too. It costs $38 a night. And it is home for a young mother, Halley, and her 6-year-old daughter, Moonee, in director Sean Baker's “The Florida Project,” a transcendently beautiful, funny, heartwarming (and heart wrenching) tale of childhood, poverty and the broken American dream.

This is Kissimmee, Florida, and it is less than 10 miles away from that fairy tale promise of Disney. It might as well be on another planet.

Not that Moonee notices. Played by the wonderfully great newcomer Brooklynn Prince, Moonee exists in a world of her own: A charmed childhood dreamscape of freedom and friends and devilish fun.

Moonee's kind of a terror. She is not well-behaved or polite or deferential to adults. And she does some truly bad things, but you can't help but fall in love with her. She is unmistakably her age, which Baker never conceals or glosses over or exploits for mawkish story tricks.

Young childhood is so hard to get right in the movies. But Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch get it so very right with Moonee and her friends. It feels like you're watching a documentary at times.

As far as Moonee is concerned, things are good at The Magic Castle. She doesn't know that she lives on the brink of poverty, or that her mother, played by another terrific newcomer in Bria Vinaite, might not be looking out for her best interests all the time. All she knows is she can run to the back alley of a diner to get free pancakes from her friend's mom and talk strangers into giving her money for ice cream. She knows that her mom loves her and that she is safe enough to not question her own safety.

It helps that the kind and empathetic motel manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe) picks up the supervision slack and keeps an eye on Moonee and her friends. He is a thankless father figure to all the borderline homeless tenants of the motel.

Dafoe's warm and generous performance is simply astonishing. It's not one you'll soon forget (although it might make you forget some of the creeps he's played over the years).

Coming off of the vibrant “Tangerine,” Baker has outdone himself with the all-out triumph that is “The Florida Project” which will have your emotions running the gamut and you running back to the ticket counter for one more viewing. It's that good.

<b>Starring:</b> Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe,

<b>Directed by:</b> Sean Baker

<b>Other:</b> An A24 release. Rated R for language, sexual situations and drugs. 115 minutes