Every now and then a film comes along that isn’t about much at all, but transports audiences to worlds they never would have experienced. Last year’s Best Picture winner Moonlight was one such example of cinéma vérité exploring the little-seen lives of queer black men. In this reviewer’s humble opinion, The Florida Project is an even better film.

The film follows six-year-old Moonee (uncannily good newcomer Prince) and her young mother Halley (Vinaite), as they eke out an existence as ‘temporary’ tenants of The Magic Castle. It’s one of many brightly-painted themed motels of its sort in Orlando, Florida: built to cater for tourists when nearby Disney World first opened in the ‘70s, but now housing people too poor to afford anything else.

When she’s not helping her mother scam tourists to pay for rent, Moonee and the other local kids cause mayhem for the motel’s gruff-but-sympathetic manager (Dafoe, at his best). We enjoy their vibrant company in an almost voyeuristic fashion over one summer and the experience is authentic and tinged with childhood wonder, never judgemental.

The film derives its title from the early project name for Disney’s utopian theme park, and although the now-run-down motels surrounding it are anything but magical, The Florida Project most certainly is.