THE FLORIDA PROJECT: another small but strong movie from indie filmmaker Sean Baker

I've been following the films of Sean Baker since his 2004 sophomore effort, Take Out (you can find my review and Q&A with the filmmaker here) and finding that work evolving, growing richer and stronger with each new film. Baker has now made six full-length features, with his latest THE FLORIDA PROJECT, the most precious jewel in the crown. Word was out early regarding how special is this movie and, for those who love narrative films with a documentary feel, as all of his films have so far seemed, this one will not disappoint.

Mr. Baker, shown at right, loves children -- both of the small sort, and those who, though they may look like adults -- see Starlet and Tangerine for a couple of examples -- still mostly act like the kids they've never been able to move beyond. How they manage (or don't) to begin to make that move comprises the arc of those two films and their characters' stories. With The Florida Project, Baker gives the actual small kids their lead and lets them run with it. The result is initially bubbly, bracing and enormous fun, but as the movie moves along, its dark side surfaces almost equally. What's missing for most of these kids is not only proper parenting but the kind of safety net any decent society needs. The movie does not "tell" us this; it doesn't need to because it shows us so clearly everything we need to know.

The film takes place in the Orlando, Florida, area -- far enough away but also near enough to Disney World to make that place resonate without our ever actually having to see it (throughout most of the movie, at least). Instead we and our scrappy heroine, Moonee, played by a very young actress, Brooklynn Prince (shown above, center, and below, right), who makes an indelible impression here, hang out at the low-end motel in which the kids and their caretakers live. All the children are terrific and seem as real as kids get, but Ms Prince receives the major screen time, and she's worth every minute of it.

As her problemed mom, newcomer Bria Vinaite (above) is equally real and twice as troubling, as the character stumbles from one bad move to the next and yet keeps caring for her daughter as best she can -- which is, unfortunately, not really very well.

The filmmaker mixes professionals actors with non-pros and does this with such ease that if you did not already recognize performers such as Caleb Landry Jones, Macon Blair and especially Willem Dafoe (shown above, and who is as incredibly fine here, playing what you might call a "normal" character, as he has ever been), you would think them all just part of the real people Baker has recruited for his project.

Baker's choice of incident builds carefully and very well to what will be a turning point. We don't know quite in what direction it will turn, nor whether it will help or hinder, but by then we've spent nearly two breathless hours watching, smiling, wincing, frowning and feeling childhood, its joys and discontents, as strongly as you could want -- and all with characters from an economic/social class of which many of us don't rub up against at all often. When we do, we're likely to somehow discount them. Mr. Baker (as with all his films) makes certain that doesn't happen here.

The Florida Project, from A24 and running 115 minutes, opened on its home ground, Orlando, last weekend and will hit Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach this Friday, October 20, along with elsewhere throughout the country now and in the weeks to come. To discover the theaters nearest you, simply click here.

An Oscar campaign begins for Sean Baker's oddball and entrancing indie, TANGERINE

The fact that mini-budget independent movies almost never get noticed by the Academy is by now such a standard occurrence -- an anomaly like Winter's Bone simply proves the rule -- that most of us critics just groan and roll our eyes yearly at all the excellent work that never gets "officially" noticed (except occasionally by the group that shepherds the Best Foreign Language Film to completion). So the recent news that TANGERINE, the latest film from indie stalwart Sean Baker, is going to receive an Oscar campaign via its distributor, Magnolia Pictures and its executives producers The Duplass Brothers, Jay and Mark (also indie stalwarts), is welcome news.

Filmmaker Baker has been on my radar since his funny/sad/ energetic look at an illegal immigrant deliveryman of Chinese food, Take Out, released theatrically back in 2004. When I finally saw the movie upon its DVD release a few years later, I contacted Baker for a quick Q&A interview (you can find it here), and I have been enjoying his every-couple-of-years-appearance of a new film ever since. These would include Prince of Broadway, Starlet, and now Tangerine.

The adjective group funny/sad/energetic applies to all of Baker's films, as does the term "documentary feel." While all of these are narrative films, so filled with specific of the workplace and the living habits of their protagonists, with each you could swear you're watching a documentary. One thing that will tip you off to the contrary is how often, plot-wise, the films seem melodramatic. And yet, so gifted are the performers on view, and so full of life and good will are the movies themselves -- despite their often bleak subject matter -- that even some of us cynical critic types appear to embrace them quite fully.

In some ways, Tangerine seems the best of all the Bakers so far. While I say that with each new film of his, it's because he keeps growing as a filmmaker. Here he has acted as director, editor, co-writer, co-cinematographer, co-producer and co-casting director. (Yes, I think we can legitimately call this a Sean Baker film.)  Baker also completely shot his film on an iPhone, and while it is not the first movie to boast this -- 2012s underseen and excellent King Kelly was shot on a phone camera -- Tangerine looks like a million bucks in comparison.

Baker loves to tackle "the other," whether it be immigrants, the poor, porn industry workers or now, the transvestite hookers of his latest movie. He endows all his characters with enormous humanity and such a range of good and bad qualities that we see their faults aplenty but can still care about them and enjoy them and their often fraught situations. His characters become so real, genuine and important that their humanity completely overtakes their "otherness." This is no small accomplishment.

Tangerine takes place in Hollywood on Christmas Eve, as hookers Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, below, right) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor, above), exchange pleasantries and sadness concerning Sin-Dee's unfaithful pimp (the wonderful James Ransone of The Wire), whom Sin-dee decides to punish (along with the blond whore with whom he's taken up: a very funny, spaced-out Mickey O'Hagan, below left).

What happens and why includes an Armenian taxi driver with a yen for chicks-with-dicks (played beautifully by Karren Karagulian, below, Baker's go-to guy in literally all his films), the family of this sex-obsessed cab man, and various other denizens of the dank, culminating in a Hollywood donut shop in which all hell breaks hilariously loose.

Whether Tangerine will connect with Academy members in a major way, I couldn't say. But so far as low-budget independents with sleazy themes, big hearts and a lot of gumption and talent are concerned (Taylor and Rodriquez are both phenomenal), this is the one to beat.

The movie, running just 88 minutes, is still playing in theaters (it first opened in early July) and still turning heads. No doubt its video incarnation will appear in time for Academy members to take further note before nominations are in. New upcoming playdates, with cities and theaters listed, can be found by clicking here.

Sean Baker's best-yet--the sweet 'n juicy STARLET--hits DVD/Blu-ray/digital venues

All about porn and caring, STARLET makes some surpri-sing connections, both physical and emotional, along the way. This is the third film by Sean Baker that I've seen and covered (Take Out and Prince of Broadway are the other two), and his movies seem to get better and better. In retrospect, you may find yourself thinking of them as documentaries, so well does Baker -- who directs, edits and either writes or co-writes -- create lives that appear utterly real in a milieu that seems equally so. 

But these are narrative films, nonetheless.

Mr. Baker, shown at left, has a good eye and ear, both of which he uses to show us a group of full-bodied characters engaged in making their way in life. He is remarkably non-judgmental, too. This results in films in which you end up rather liking everyone, despite their occasional crass, venal or simply dumb behavior. Baker appears to see the good (at least some good) in everyone -- a rarity these days --  yet his vision is nothing like of a Pollyanna. This, along with his increasing flair for and understanding of the movie-making process, as much as anything else makes his work quite special.

In Starlet, he follows the adventures of a 21-year-old porn actress named Jane (Dree Hemingway, at left and last seen in The Truth About Angels), who looks to have a real future in this sleazy field, if she plays her cards right. Via a yard sale and a large thermos she purchases and plans to use as a vase, Jane makes the acquaintance of Sadie, a curmudgeonly old woman (Besedka Johnson, below, an astrologist-turned-actress, giving her first and, sadly, last film performance). How these two slowly connect, break apart and reconnect provides the meat of the movie, and with the help of his two pretty amazing performers, Baker makes all this register pitch perfect without a false moment.

Ms Hemingway, in particular, proves expert at limning a young woman with remarkably good instincts negotiating her way around everyone from this angry old woman to her porn boss, somewhat sleazy roommates (male, James Ransone, and female, Stella Maeve, below), all kinds of customers at a porn convention -- and even the police. In a more just world, this performance would be winning numerous awards. Maybe Hemingway just makes it look too easy.

Wisely, I think, Baker leaves the porn in the background for quite awhile. From what we initially see, this could almost be any old office situation in which our two girls labor. When, finally, we're confronted with an actual porn shoot (which, by the way, comes pretty close to hard-core action) it is handled so smartly, realistically and un-sensationally by the filmmaker that we simply go right along with it (as do -- whew -- the actors on view). The reason this proves such a smart move is that, by this time, we are so fully involved with and caring about Jane that we can understand and even appreciate her actions here as simply work for hire. In fact, we can maybe even approve of the good job she does.

I can't think of another movie that has achieved quite this. No, not the recent About Cherry, which gave us the business end of porn, or even Boogie Nights, which gave us all sorts of new things. Another reason that Baker's view of the industry proves so special and different is the actor,  Karren Karagulian, above, with Ms Hemingway, who was so good in Prince of Broadway, and adds layers of interest here as the intelligent, business-like, and even (dare we say it) relatively decent man in charge of the business.

The filmmaker keeps his camera up close (below) or distant (above), as necessary, and the results are just right. In a couple of situations, Baker veers near melodrama, but so well does he guide his actors, that the result is never melodramatic. What happens finally, and at any point along the way, is life continuing to unfold, with lessons only begun to be learned and changes maybe partially in place. This -- in our current low-budget, independent film world -- is near-miraculous.

Running 103 minutes from Music Box Films, Starlet (which is the name, by the way, of our heroine's delightful little dog) is available, after its too-short theatrical run, this Tuesday, May 7, on DVD and Blu-ray and via digital formats, too -- for sale or rental.  Extras on the DVD and Blu-ray include audio commentary, The Making of STARLET, interviews with select cast and crew, rehearsal and audition footage (we watched the Besedka Johnson audition: fun!), Behind-the-Scenes, and more.

Sean Baker's far too undersung/underseen PRINCE OF BROADWAY comes to DVD

A few years ago Sean Baker made a movie -- Take Out -- that opened up to viewers the world of Chinese illegals working in New York City in the restaurant trade. Now Baker's back with a new film that does something similar for an African emigre who is not only illegal in America but who works in a trade -- the grey market for fashion knock-offs -- that is as illegal as he is. And once again, Mr Baker envelopes us in the lives of characters who seem very real and quite worth our time. And he does this -- glory, glory -- with remarkably few clichés and via camerawork and editing (both done by the filmmaker himself) that are hands-on, up-close, and wonderfully intimate and immediate.

Baker, shown at left, also provides what is one of the best child performances I've ever seen, by a little kid (Aiden Noesi, shown above and below), who surely can't have been more than one or two years old when the film was shot. He shares the role of title character, along with his "maybe" dad, and they're both, in their way, "Princes" of Broadway -- that Manhattan boulevard, around the neighborhood of 27th and 28th Streets, in which the older Prince (played by newcomer Prince Adu, at right, below) plies his trade. The little Prince, sheer delight to view, is a scene-stealer whom Baker has managed to capture without the kid ever seeming to know that the camera exists.

While making use of the filmmaker's documentary-based style, Prince of Broadway offers more of a typical "story" than did Take Out -- three of 'em, actually. The primary one deals with the two princes and how one suddenly comes into the other's life and changes it drastically, as babies will do. The second involves Prince père's boss in the fake-fashion world, an Armenian named Levon (played by Karren Karagulian, below), a surprisingly decent guy with family problems of his own.

The third tale, least important but still catalytic, involves an ex-girlfriend of Prince and her new guy. How these three weave in and out, along with the presence of our hero's current lady -- who proves remarkably warm and helpful, -- considering the state, in one of the film's funniest, grossest scenes, of her boy-friend's bedroom wall.

As well-done, as downright enjoyable as the film is, there is also the sense that we're seeing a bit too much of the "good" side of things. Child-rearing, even under the best of circumstances, is difficult, problematic and sometimes very hard to handle. We get little of that here.

The difficult scenes are so short that they seem to pass more quickly and easily than real-life would allow, and the three main characters -- Prince, his current girlfriend, and Levon -- are shown as a just a shade too good-to-be-true. This hardly halts our enjoyment of the film or of Baker's great skill in capturing the moment, but it does leave us with the sense of a happy ending a little too easily obtained.

Still, the performances are spectacularly good in terms of moment-to-moment reality. According to the end credits, the cast  improvised from the filmmaker's original scenario -- and they did a fine job of it.

Prince of Broadway, released via Flatiron Film Company - New Video Group, made its DVD debut last week and is available now for rental, purchase or download.