WELL AIN’T THAT AMERIKA — The Florida Project Revisited.

A COUNCIL OUTDOOR SCREENING BY ROOM #7

Where pastel motel walls meet the ruins of civilization.

Council Disclaimer:

The following movie review was conducted in the gloaming dusk, with greasy popcorn conditions, and mild despair. Viewer discretion is advised. The Council assumes no responsibility for any emotional collapse caused by pastel cinematography or the scent of melting ice cream.

THE FEATURE PRESENTATION

🎶 “WELL AIN’T THAT AMERIKA…

LITTLE PASTEL MOTEL ROOMS FOR YOU AND ME, YEAH.” 🎶

The Florida Project — a film by Sean Baker

“Years after his return in a body bag fighting the Domino Effect in Vietnam as Sgt. Elias in Platoon, Willem Dafoe is reborn as the manager of a welfare motel mopping up in the aftermath of the cultural Marxist and Global capitalist victory in America. The actor whose face has the same stamp as John Cougar Mellencamp continues in his grudging sympathy for the natives in a society in which the ideologies of slight social justice AND capitalism have joined forces in triumph; albeit not a happy marriage.

The poor have always been with us. What’s new is the type of poor we produce now. The European peasant lived hand-to-mouth but still knew which hand was God’s and which was his own. He had no illusions of choice, yet he worked, prayed, and built within his limits. The modern underclass has infinite options but no aim. They are surrounded by abundance—of information, opportunity, and distraction—and choose the latter every time.

The old poor endured necessity; the new poor cultivate dependency. They could learn, build, move, or mend, but prefer grievance to growth. Their poverty is no longer material but moral—an inheritance of apathy in an age of excess. They mistake victimhood for virtue and comfort for freedom. In a world where one can be educated from a phone, they have chosen to be entertained instead.

The peasant’s hardship produced saints, soldiers, and songs. The Amerikan lumpen-underclass produces a plethora of wanna-be rap stars, petty dysfunction, and violent crime. Civilization, it seems, has lifted the floor only to remove the spine.

The children in this movie will leave you with nightmares.”

— Cliff Langour, Chagrin Falls, Ohio

(Our Council Movie Correspondent —Gives this film 3 Middle-Finger C-of-C-C Oskars for Realism)

Hollywood Reporter Interview with Willem Dafoe ›

The Florida Project official trailer

THE ROUND TABLE REACTIONS

Arturo Haus (Silent Co-Critic)

Remained silent throughout the screening but adjusted his yellow neck gaiter twice — a gesture known to signify moral discomfort.

Mrs. Begonia Contretemp (Cultural Autopsy Host)

“Color coordination cannot redeem collapse, dear. Lavender lighting on rot is still rot. Though I will say Dafoe’s maintenance uniform had a certain integrity of cut.”

Peter R. Mossback (Athwart Historian)

“Cliff is right about dignity. Once you remove the parish and the peasant’s faith, poverty ceases to be tragic and becomes merely bureaucratic.”

Dr. Faye C. Schüß (Mental Hygiene Fellow, T.I.T.S.)

“These motels are the new sanatoriums — fluorescent wards for post-industrial malaise. The children aren’t maladjusted; they’re merely adjusted to the maladjusted.”

COUNCIL ADDENDUM

The motel is the new parish, the credit card the new confessional, and the child the new witness.

What Dafoe mops up isn’t just spilled soda — it’s the residue of faith once thick enough to hold America together in something grander than amenities.

And yet, somewhere between the cracked stucco and the neon vacancy sign, a question hums like a prayer through the air conditioner:

“If this is paradise lost, what exactly did we trade it for?”

Filed under: Future Footnotes, Cultural Critique/ Post-Industrial Pastoral / Things We Watched So You Don’t Have To

Correspondent: Cliff Langour, Chagrin Falls OH

Edited for the Timestream by: John St. Evola, Editor-in-Chief