Introduction 

Florida in Film

People constantly want to go to Florida as it presents itself as a place where individuals can take life easy, but films, particularly independent films, subvert this ideology by portraying it through a grittier lens. Films set in Florida, such as Scarface (1983), Moonlight (2016), The Florida Project (2017), and Waves (2019), demonstrate Florida’s wealth disparity. These films focus on individuals and families with a range of economic statuses. They depict everything, from hidden homelessness to a black upper-middle-class nuclear family. The films listed above connect individuals to wealth by portraying wealthy characters or characters being in proximity to it, and explore how financial achievement does not lead to the idealistic fantasy world that is promised to tourists. Instead, the films unveil Florida as a place with a gritty underbelly where people are trying to survive the pressures of obtaining the American Dream. Our project will examine the inequalities created by wealth disparity in Florida, as well as how wealth does not promise satisfaction through the films listed above.

Florida has been a hotspot for film settings since the early days of movies. With its warm, sunny, and nature ridden environment, directors have been making films set in Florida since the silent film days. The representation of Florida in these films has varied though, especially between the different centuries. As stated in the book Sunshine in the Dark: Florida in the Movies, early representations of Florida in films, mostly before the 1970’s, show Florida as a utopia, or a paradise. Films during this era seemed to “romanticize the state as an ideal destination for either opportunity or escape from troubles” (Fernandez and Ingalls 16). 

As Florida changed through time, so did its representations on the big screen. During and around the 1970’s, the portrayal of Florida flipped, no longer was it seen as a place of fun and relaxation, but rather a place filled with crime, corruption, and all kinds of trouble. Movies released around this time showed Florida as a dangerous place in many ways, with films like Night Moves(1975) and Scarface(1983), showing the dangers of nature and man. Often the idea of Florida as a place of opportunity and starting over persisted in this era, but instead of the story working out for our characters, they were often left in failure. This relates back to our thesis, stating that Florida is often represented as a place of wealth disparity, a place where opportunity definitely exists, but not for everyone. As Sunshine in the Dark: Florida in the Movies states, Florida is a place for "the rich, the immigrant, and the criminal" (Fernandez and Ingalls 16), especially in post 1970’s portrayals. Our group has noticed that most films set in the state do not show the middle class, rather most films are based on the extremely wealthy or the extremely poor, or the crossing between the two groups like in Scarface(1983) or Moonlight(2016). The wealth disparity in Florida has always been a part of films set there, there were just different representations through different eras. 

Florida has long occupied a peculiar place in the American imagination, a state that sells itself on the promise of reinvention, warmth, and abundance, and yet produces, in its cinema, some of the most restless and ultimately destroyed characters in American film. The films set there do not simply depict wealth. They depict the pursuit of wealth as a condition that consumes its host, leaving behind not satisfaction but an accelerating hunger that the acquisition of money can never resolve. What emerges across Florida's cinematic landscape is a portrait of a place where the gap between those who have and those who do not is not merely economic but existential, where the distance between poverty and prosperity is visible on every corner, and where crossing that distance offers no relief. As Ronald Bogue observes in his analysis of De Palma's Scarface, the film presents a world of "constant and insatiable circulation of money, drugs, images, desire and power," in which capital functions not as a destination but as an addiction, a force that intensifies desire rather than fulfilling it (Bogue 122). This quality is not incidental to Florida as a setting. It is essential to it. The state's geography of extremes, its gated communities rising beside poverty, its tourist fantasy laid over economic precarity, makes it the natural home for stories about people who reach the top only to find the top uninhabitable. Florida films, taken together, argue that wealth disparity does not simply create inequality between those inside and outside the system. It creates a deeper dysfunction within the system itself, one that ensures that even arrival offers no peace. The dream, in these films, is always already dissolving the moment it is grasped.

Our Films

Scarface

Brian De Palma's Scarface (1983) traces the trajectory of Tony Montana from detained immigrant to cocaine kingpin, using Miami as the stage on which wealth disparity first excludes and then corrupts. The film ultimately argues that even when wealth is reached, it brings no satisfaction, only isolation and the slow unraveling of everything built to get there.

Moonlight 

Moonlight (2016), directed by Barry Jenkins, is an Oscar winning film about life in Miami in the 1980’s. It specifically focuses on identity, wealth, and growing up. The film is split into three parts, and follows a man named Chiron from youth to adulthood. We see Chiron struggle with a number of things including family issues, bullying, poverty, crime, sexuality, and fatherhood. This film directly relates to our thesis, that films set in Florida often represent wealth disparity and dissatisfaction with wealth, commonly relating to crime or corruption. These themes are present in Moonlight and seen within Chiron as he grows up. We first see the wealth disparity directly in the difference between Chiron’s home life and his life with Juan. The houses are within walking distance, yet the lives are completely different. We even see the cause of this disparity, with Juan selling Chiron’s Mom drugs, leading to her incapacity to provide. We see the dissatisfaction with wealth in the third part of the film. Chiron is grown and has turned into what he believed was his path, basically an image of Juan, a leader of a drug ring, respected in the streets, and financially well off. Still Chiron is not satisfied with his life and returns to his neighborhood in Miami to try and find peace.

Florida Project 

The Florida Project (2017), directed by Sean Baker, explores the complex relationship between wealth and satisfaction. The film follows Moonee, a young girl, living with her mom, Hailey, at the Magic Castle Inn. It is evident that Moonee and her mom are experiencing a type of homelessness known as hidden homelessness. Harm Deleu’s article “Hidden Homelessness: A Scoping Review and Avenues for Further Inquiry” defines hidden homelessness as individuals experiencing housing exclusions, which remain invisible to the public, research, and homeless services (283). Since the film centers around children in Orlando, Florida, on summer vacation, Moonee and her friends maintain innocence in their unusual living conditions. While they’re not sugar, spice, and everything nice, they are still children going through life for the first time. There are moments throughout the film when money does lead to happiness, but due to the way Hailey gains her income, it ultimately leads to child services rehoming Moonee. Moonee’s lifestyle contrasts with that of stable families and tourists who come to Orlando to experience the fantasy world Disney creates. There’s a moment when a couple is distraught when they realize they booked their stay at the Magic Castle Motel, instead of a resort within Disney World. Additionally, Moonee’s childhood is contrasted with that of other children as she, and the other kids living in the motel, create elaborate lies to convince people to give them money to buy ice cream, whereas another girl does not need to beg as her mother can afford it. Ultimately, the film demonstrates how money is a tool for survival, but how far are people willing to go to obtain money? 

Waves 

Trey Edward Shults’s Waves (2019) maps the collapse of a Black middle-class family in South Florida, using the manicured suburbs of Miami and Fort Lauderdale to demonstrate how the extreme pressure to maintain status first suffocates and then destroys. The film ultimately argues that even when the milestones of the American Dream, wealth, property, and athletic excellence, are reached, they provide no shield against systemic anxiety or personal tragedy, leading to a profound dissatisfaction that can only be healed by dismantling the performance of success.