The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2016. Ben Cash and his wife Leslie and their six children live in the Washington wilderness. [7] It was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten independent films of 2016[8] and Mortensen was nominated for the Golden Globe, the BAFTA Award,[9] and the Academy Award for Best Actor.[10]. The site's critical consensus reads, "Captain Fantastic's thought-provoking themes—and an absorbing starring turn from Viggo Mortensen—add up to an above-average family drama with unexpected twists. When a family feud about a forthcoming funeral in New Mexico turns Captain Fantastic into a road movie, the Cash clan encounter supermarkets, trailer … He's a tough but adoring father, a grieving widower and a passionate defender of his wife's final wishes, and Mortensen plays all these notes and more with subtlety and grace". So is it? The final scene shows the family around the kitchen table with their father, waiting for the school bus to arrive. But to do this in the way the main character does it, to actually retreat from society and devote every waking moment to being a parent â perhaps there are costs there as well. Here's what Ross told Eugénie Malinjod of the Festival de Cannes: "The genesis of Captain Fantastic was my having two children, making this the most personal story Iâve ever written. On some level, the film asks a very simple question, as a parent, where does one draw the line between doing too much and doing too little?". [14][15], Principal photography on the film commenced in July 2014, in Western Washington,[16][17] with additional photography in Portland, Oregon. [13] Much of the rest of the cast joined that July and August. While smoke from the narrative pyre signals both Grand Theft Parsons and What We Did on Our Holiday, this is closer in tone to the anarchic indie spirit of Jordan Vogt-Roberts’s wonderful The Kings of Summer with which it shares both an anarchic rural streak and a melancholic existential ennui. Cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine (best known for his work with Jacques Audiard) balances the beauty of the landscape against the toughness of the children’s lives, while Courtney Hoffman’s magpie costumes tell their own stories, from Ben’s poignantly dated wedding suit to the skins, patchworks and hand-me-downs that adorn the kids. Meanwhile, Ann Dowd and Frank Langella lend depth to the role of grieving parents whose animosity towards Ben becomes ever more understandable. Ben considers most of Western society to be fascist, especially corporate America. In this respect, the main character is my fantasy of myself and the film is aspirational. They argue over the phone and Jack threatens to have Ben arrested if he attends the funeral. From its Lord of the Flies opening to the hints of Manson-family madness (knife-obsessed kids led by a wild-eyed beardy charismatic man), Ross’s grand adventure injects a note of darkness into its Edenic setting. Yet as I watched this strange and wonderful tale of an isolated family living a back-to-nature existence in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, fragments of Bernie Taupin’s sublime lyrics from the 1975 title track of Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy kept drifting through my mind – from the disdain for “cheap easy meals” to the rejection of organised religion (“all this talk of Jesus coming back to see us”) and the assurance that “from here on sonny, it’s a long and lonely climb”. Elsewhere, Ross superbly segues from the soporific elevator tones of My Heart Will Go On to Bikini Kill’s Rebel Girl during an outrageous supermarket sweep. With its thrillingly life-affirming performances, it’s a shame that Captain Fantastic’s “strong language” has earned it a 15 certificate; there’s more here for adolescent audiences to enjoy and appreciate than in much 12-rated blockbuster fare. In CAPTAIN FANTASTIC, when we first meet Ben (Viggo Mortensen), he and his children (who range in age from very young to nearly college-aged) are running through the woods, faces caked in mud, holding weapons, in pursuit of a deer that his teenage son slays. [12] That June, it was announced that George MacKay, Annalise Basso, Samantha Isler, Nicholas Hamilton, Shree Crooks and newcomer Charlie Shotwell had also been cast. Alex Somers’s surging musical soundscapes tug at the heartstrings, but it’s the diegetic songs that really strike a chord, from an early sequence in which a plaintive guitar duet is disrupted by young Rellian’s rhythmic alarums, to a Wicker Man-style reworking of Sweet Child O’ Mine that reduced me to tears. A pointed discussion of Nabokov with Ben’s super-smart kids flags up the question of how loving or abusive his parenting may be, leaving our own sympathies divided. When a family feud about a forthcoming funeral in New Mexico turns Captain Fantastic into a road movie, the Cash clan encounter supermarkets, trailer parks and suburban family suppers for the first time, with lively culture-clash results. All rights reserved. His son Bodevan accuses his father of failing to equip them for the real world by setting them up for a rude awakening when they grow up and shows him college acceptance letters from Ivy League schools for which Leslie had helped him apply. Not only that, but it doesn't appear that the film traces even its loose inspiration to any specific real life event. [26] Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a positive review, saying "Boasting half a dozen impressive youth performances alongside a leading role that takes full advantage of Mortensen's own sensitive, back-to-nature spirit, Captain Fantastic easily ranks among the most polished and relatable of this year's Sundance offerings. Ben's children also start doubting their father and his parenting skills. The family briefly stays at the house of Ben’s sister Harper. Most notably, as the off-the-grid lifestyle he has fashioned for his family starts to come apart at the seams, the question posed at the end of one verse prefigures the central dilemma facing Viggo Mortensen’s paterfamilias Ben Cash: “Should I make my way out of my home in the woods?”. [24] It received a ten-minute standing ovation at Cannes. Ben, shocked and guilty, allows Jack to take his children. He may not be a superhero, but in terms of imagination, this captain really can fly. Ben learns that Leslie's father, Jack, plans to hold a traditional funeral and burial, even though Leslie wished to be cremated. Family fantastic: from left, Shree Crooks, Charlie Shotwell, George MacKay, Nicholas Hamilton, Samantha Isler and Annalise Basso. ", "2016 IndieWire Critics Poll: Full List of Results", "20th Annual Online Film Critics Society Awards Nominations", "San Diego Film Critics Society's 2016 Award Winners", "SAG Awards 2017: The Complete List of Nominations", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Captain_Fantastic_(film)&oldid=982226568, Films with screenplays by Matt Ross (actor), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Feature-Length Motion Picture – Contemporary Make-Up, This page was last edited on 6 October 2020, at 21:38. He initially decides not to go and prevents his children from doing so, but then changes his mind, leading his children on a road trip into life outside the wilderness. [4][21] The film was released on July 8, 2016. [19] In August 2014, it was announced that Bleecker Street would distribute the film in the United States. Instead, the idea for the movie comes wholly from writer/director Matt Ross, who came up with the idea after becoming a father himself and having the desire to raise his children in a perfect world; having complete control over their upbringing. In response, Jack has Ben forcibly removed. Despite its seemingly realistic storyline, Captain Fantastic is totally made up. [11] In making the film Ross also took autobiographical bits from his own life, notably being raised in what he terms as "alternative-living communities" growing up.
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