Metrograph

Baker’s extraordinarily humane drama about the tenacity and resourcefulness of youth and lives lived at the fringes of destitution depicts the events of a single summer for unemployed, increasingly desperate single mother (Bria Vinaite), her vivacious six-year-old daughter (Brooklynn Prince), and other residents of “The Magic Castle”—a grotty week-by-week budget motel located just a few highway exits from the family-friendly fantasia of Disney World, overseen by outwardly gruff but tender-hearted manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe, at the peak of his artistry). “To balance joy and desperation as gracefully as Mr. Baker does—to interweave giddiness and heartbreak—is no easy feat.”—The New York Times

Distributor: A24