The Florida Project - 1 nomination

Actor in a Supporting Role - Willem DaFoe

The Florida Project follows the poor residents of a motel near Disney World, where people live for extended periods of time.  The children in the complex are unruly, the parents in the complex are mostly people who are down on their luck in some way, scraping by to keep a roof over their heads.  Moonee is 6 years old, precocious, and a bit of a trouble maker.  Her mom gets by in any way she can, sometimes legally, sometimes illegally.  Her mom, Halley, does what she can to keep an eye on Moonee, but she is untroubled by the shenanigans that Moonee gets into.  Willem Dafoe is the manager of the motel complex, and he has a soft spot for Halley and Moonee, and deals with the grind of low income living.

For the first 25 minutes of this film, I couldn't find a single redeeming element.  I hated the kids who were wild and rude, I thought Willem Dafoe was fine, but this part was certainly not Oscar worthy, so I had to go back to watch it again to see what all the fuss was about.  But I gave it a second chance.  

Truth be told, there wasn't enough of a plot to wrap your arms around, and I still wouldn't say that I liked the film, but it did get more engaging as the story went along.  It was more of a character study with situations than an overriding movie with a plot, but I started to understand at least what the filmmakers were intending, which was to show the despair associated with these street families. The story is very intentionally set under the looming eye of one of the richest, most decadent experiences available in the country - Disney World (one character in the film loses his passes for his family of 4, which cost $1700).  The disparity of experience in this one town are jarring and are important to consider, sadly, this film just didn't speak to me.