First of all this may contain "spoilers" so if that freaks you out stop here.

Florida Project is a film that rings  true. Not because I have some insight into people living on the economic edge of society  in a beat up hotel but because it reminds me of Florida. I recall, as middle class little kids in the 70s, before video games and cable television, before parents micromanaging their kid's lives, what kids did are what the kids DO in this movie. Kids create a world, they share, the do stupid things, they destroy stuff.

That is what ALL kids do. These kids opt for their only option for entertainment, their minds and the world that surrounds them. We see a lot of this from their perspective. You can imagine the Orlando-area tourist traps re-imagined via the minds of small kids.

This is a slice of life from a world we don't want to know about or that we immediately judge. I could almost SMELL the judgement coming up from the theater where I saw it (full of well-off old white people who no doubt read about the movie in the New Yorker). There is drinking, there is weed, there is prostitution, there are predators but this film never dwells on the ugly nor shows it in any prurient way. We infer it. Good for director, Sean Baker, for this take in a film environment that favors the graphic. We don't always need that.

The film doesn't romanticize any of this but instead opts to show the people here are humans with real hearts and who care but also live in a reality where you move on from your friends when that friendship endangers your children. A place where kids look after themselves or rely on a broader definition of family for protection (a hotel manager, for instance).

There is a hint of magic via the children's perspective but the realism here is far from magical. I wish this would be more than a movie. It COULD be a call to action. It won't be but it should be.The entire time I watched this film I kept thinking of the evils of capitalism--as all the aged rich white people around me (yeah, that is who they were, I saw this in the North Chicago burbs) harumphed and giggled. Some thought the ending, child's fantasy, was HILARIOUS and laughed aloud. These were grey people in their 60s. One old couple sat there waiting through the credits because there might be "something after"....I was like "Yeah, fucking Loki and Thor show up and save the day!"

Mercifully, my son saw this film in Miami and said when the film ended there? The reaction at the end was stunned silence, not laughter. Perhaps, in Florida, there is more of an understanding what the intervention of DCF really means. It usually isn't anything good in that state.

The acting in this film is so good you feel like you are watching people in their real lives. Willem Defoe could easily be nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Bria Vinaite and child actress, Brooklynn Prince would not be out of place as nominees either (I would leave it to the Academy to determine the category).

There is a whiff of both Moonlight and Beast of the Southern Wild in this movie--not necessarily because of any content but due to its originality. I haven't written a word on films for years and this movie made me begin again.

The Rover is the feel-good film of the summer. Be sure to take your tween daughters, who've just discovered the Twilight series to see it.

O.k. that isn't even remotely true but it would be hilarious if someone actually did that. The Rover is a dark film about people losing their humanity. It features the always excellent Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson traveling through a blasted hellscape.

The film is a simple one.  There has been some sort of collapse--political, environmental, economic and Australia is now in a lawless, everyone-for-themselves mode.  A group of men steal a car from Pearce's Eric and he aims to pursue them. One of the men's brother's, Pattinson's Rey, has been left behind, injured. The de-humanized, almost monstrous Eric, take him to track down the car.

But this movie isn't about cars, or vengeance. It shows characters who have, in varying degrees lost hope, lost purpose but who, in some cases, are at "peace" with this ("peace" is an odd word to use in any description of this film).

The film is interesting in that the protagonist, Eric, is probably the worst person in the film. He kills without conscience, even if his words, on one occasion hint at some residual morality. Others cling to some vague sort of community--be it the community of a brothel or a "convenience store" where customers are held at the point of a shotgun while making a "purchase."

Many of the characters go through the motions of their former lives--they sell things for money that is now valueless. They perform duties no one cares about and that are also pointless. They go through the motions.

It seems that the only one who understands is Eric who is a man drained of anything human. He is indifferent to his own well-being. Asked, at one point, about why he thinks another character won't just shoot him down, he replies that he doesn't think that. His life means nothing to him. It is a chilling and laconic performance by Pearce.

Pattinson is a simple minded young man whose nature is gentle. Before he even appears on screen you know he isn't made for this dark world. He lacks the cruelty and indifference to stay alive. He tells the indifferent Eric stories about his growing up. When questioned; "why are you telling me this?" He replies "Everything doesn't have to be about something."

This is a sentiment no one else in this movie could possibly share.

Pattinson gets less respect than deserved. What young actor WOULDN'T take the Twilight role? This movie goes a long, long way toward him getting respect for his acting chops. He more than holds his own with Pearce and that is no easy task.

The dreary plot and disturbing performances are matched by blasted landscapes and abandoned housing, by dead-eyed characters and a feeling of utter pointlessness.

The Rover is not a fun movie but it is a rare film with a point and perspective on humanity. Because, by the film's end, even if there is no revelatory return to humanity for Eric, you see that there is something left in him. Of course, when you see this? The movie, in the next shot practically, snatches it away to highlight the pointlessness of this world and then UNDERLINE it.