There is something pretty special about “The Florida Project.”

Writer/director Sean Baker has crafted a beautifully film, that like his previous work “Tangerine” amerces the audience in a world rarely seen on the big screen.

“The Florida Project” is set during the summer for 6-year old Moonie (Brooklyn Prince, in one of the great child performances in recent memory). Moonie lives with her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) in a motel close to Disney World in Orlando called the Magic Castle.

The motel is everything its famous amusement park isn’t – a residency for people down on their luck, one step away from homeless. But to Moonie and her friends the surroundings are anything but downtrodden. It just serves as a backdrop for countless hours of adventure – all under the watchful eye of the motel’s manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe).

Baker, who co-wrote the film with Chris Bergoch, has created a film that feels as authentic as any 2017 release. It’s as if Baker just showed up at this motel and started rolling the cameras and these people allowed Baker to document their day-to-day lives (using a mix of professional and amateur actors help with that authenticity). 

By setting “The Florida Project” in an Orlando motel, Baker has a beautiful juxtaposition between childhood innocence oblivious to the grim reality that they are one step away from homelessness. What’s so great about how this unfolds is the film make no excuses for how the adults got into situations because it really doesn’t matter to the kids. This is all they know – and even as things start to crumble around them – their childhood innocence still shines through.

Prince is the heart of the film, an amazing child performance that effectively captures the themes of the film. Her mischievous – and at times questionable – behavior feels like a natural extension of the world she has come to know. This film could have easily been called “Girlhood” the way it explores the themes of growing up in the same manner as Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood.”

If Prince is the heart of “The Florida Project,” then Dafoe provides the moral compass – with Bobby a stern, yet compassionate observer of everything that happens at this motel.

It all builds to a final shot that is both poignant and heartbreaking as we ponder what lies ahead for Moonie and her friends. It’s a question that doesn’t have an easy answer, which is basically the approach Baker takes with all of “The Florida Project.”

If “Tangerine” was Baker’s breakthrough film, then this just cements his status as one of the best young filmmakers in Hollywood today.

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Brooklyn Prince

Directed by: Sean Baker

Rating: R for language throughout, disturbing behavior, sexual references and some drug material

Playing at: Belcourt Theater in Nashville (opens Friday)

Grade: A