Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) is a 6 year-old living in Orlando, FL. She lives with her mother (Bria Vinaite) at a lavender-painted hotel managed by Bobby (Willem Dafoe). It is summer so Moonee and her little band of friends must find ways to entertain themselves. To say that they are a gang of delinquents would be an understatement. The movie opens with them spitting on a parked car at a neighboring motel. The spitting continued until the car owner emerged from her motel room and confronted them, at which point they madly dash away. Sadly, Moonee is just duplicating her mother who is a scammer, a prostitute, a thief, and foul-mouthed as well. The movie is one long tragedy of child rearing occasionally interrupted by a humorous bit with Willem Dafoe.
Willem Dafoe is the only bright spot of this movie. Had the trials and tribulations of a manager of a low-end motel in Orlando been the focus with Moonee and her mother as just one of them, this might have been a less odious movie. Not only is the movie one long tragic case of a mother ruining her child, it fails to tell many of the stories it started. What is the deal with Bobby and his son? We see the son a couple of times and there is clearly a hinted at story that vanishes as soon as it is mentioned. At another point, Bobby vanishes into Room 101 and the camera noticeably doesn't follow. Is this his room at the motel?
Mostly hard to watch. Best avoided.
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