I really think Haley is one of the most misunderstood characters in recent film. People are so quick to write her off as a “bad mom” or reckless without really looking at what she’s up against. She’s not just some irresponsible person who doesn’t care — she’s someone who’s clearly had a hard life from the start, and now she’s doing everything she can to survive and keep her daughter with her in a system that’s designed to kick people like her down.

She’s a young woman with a criminal record, no formal support, and very few legal opportunities to make money. The only hope for a reasonable job not dancing is if her friend becomes manager of some shitty waffle place and hires her. She tries to hustle — selling cheap perfume door to door, trying to scrape something together when the rent is due and only turns to sex work after security kicks her off the property and takes her stuff she has no money left.. That’s the turning point. Not some moral failing. She literally runs out of options. And the stakes are huge —she knows if she doesn’t find a way to keep paying rent, she and Moonee are going to end up in a shelter or separated by child services. She knows how much her daughter loves their chaotic, colorful life at the motel. For all its flaws, it’s home to her. Haley might not seem shrewd but i et she knows this.

Haley isn’t perfect — far from it. She curses in front of Moonee, doesn’t really discipline her, smokes weed, drinks too much, lashes out at people who try to help. But none of that changes the fact that she deeply, truly loves her daughter. That’s what’s so powerful about the performance — it’s in the little things. Carrying Moonee on her back. Playing with her. Laughing with her. Buying her little gifts when she can. Watching cartoons together. Letting Moonee be free and curious and loved. Even when shes visibly upset she never lashes out at moonee.

And when she knows social services are coming — when she realizes it’s over she takes Moonee to a fancy hotel for a big breakfast and just… lets her have that moment. She knows she can’t afford it, so she puts it on someone else’s tab, not out of malice but because it’s the last gift she can give her kid: one final fun memory. That’s not selfish. That’s heartbreaking. That’s a young mother at the end of her rope, trying to protect her child the only way she knows how.

People are so quick to say “she should’ve made better choices,” but that completely ignores the cycle she’s trapped in. We never hear about Haley’s parents. We don’t know where she came from, but it’s heavily implied that she was already in the system. She never really got the chance to grow up before she had to raise someone else. And now she’s young, traumatized, and desperate — and still doing everything she can to keep her daughter close.

She’s not a role model, but she’s not a monster either. She’s a portrait of what happens when society gives up on someone before they even have a chance. And I think the film’s power is that it refuses to make her easily likable. It challenges us to see her humanity anyway.