In this unflinching look into childhood below the poverty line on the streets just east of the Magic Kingdom, Sean Baker continues his provocative filmmaking tour of the invisible American classes.
Though their play is scripted by their parents’ cycles of violence and addiction, six-year-old Moonee and friends mark time like a post-truth era version of the Little Rascals. Questions of nature vs. nurture percolate through the film as this terribly adult world overlaps with Moonee’s daily routines.
Because we see the human scale of welfare policy in the warped, desperate sense of freedom Moonee has already inherited from her mother, it is hard to imagine a film like this not feeling exploitative. But in Baker’s hands, this rough poem of primary colors and heartbreaking visual phrases ends like a desperate prayer. — M. Leary (2017)
Arts & Faith Lists:
2017 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury — #3