Captain Fantastic

Very well crafted and acted film. And it's just short of a masterpiece. But most reviewers here missed the obvious: Ben is a totalitarian monster.

Kielyr explains the movie to us when forced by her dad to explicate Lolita. And Ben finally sees it himself in the end: "It was a beautiful mistake."

Set against the beautiful Pacific Northwest backdrop, Captain Fantastic is easily one of the most nuanced films to come to mainstream cinema in the last few years. It's main plot addresses the struggle when everyone has the best intentions but not the same values. Additionally, the film makes honest and straightforward comments on controversial issues in today's society that are often taboo in the media such as mental illness, the hypocrisy of children's exposure to violence and sex, religion, and the flaws in the American education system. This sounds heavy and uncomfortable but these issues are paralleled in such a way that parts of the film had us in tears; from laughing so hard. Director Matt Ross says the project started as an exaggerated exploration of the difficult choices that must be made in regards to raising children in today's society. I think the film goes a step further and awakens an internal dialogue in each of it's viewers about the way that we live our own lives based on societal influences. Furthermore, the performances given by the perfectly arranged cast enhance your investment in the story in a way that will cause you to question what right and wrong really are when you're only trying to do your best and do what you think is best for those that you love.

This movie challenges lots of things that we wrongfully take for granted in today's society. Mortensen is brilliant for yet another time and all the cast is simply breathtaking.

The concept of the movie and the backstory were brilliant. A touching movie, heartwarming and brilliant all along. A father that although strict and sometimes military like, who's also artistic and deeply sentimental. An amazing depiction from Vigo Mortensen. Amazing.

A movie that in a simple but yet elegant way depicts all the things that have altered our society and brings forth lots of the things that really matter. It makes us think about the ways we were raised and rethink the ways in which we want our children to be raised.

This is a movie well worth your time. One of the best movies I have watched in 2016, by far!

Mortensen plays Ben, A father of six children, whose wife suffers from mental illness and Ben thought it would be good for her and the kids to live out in the wild, living off the land and tossing the rules of our society out the window. However, Ben's wife did not get better. Captain Fantastic mostly focuses on the children. On a road trip towards their mother's funeral, they get a culture clash with the rest of the world. It lays out all the info for the question of weather these kids were raised right or raise wrong. Captain Fantastic starts off showing you the children's lifestyle, were organic met growing and hunting your own food and made their own clothes and were home schooled. Then they come into society where everyone looks at them as if they are freaks, but why is it weird that these kids don't know the name brand of sneakers? The look on their faces when they experienced Street Fighter for the first time makes sense when your not use to such things. Besides, it's a shame on our Society that an 8 year old can comprehend the Bill of Rights better than those older than her. Watching these kids tackle the woods than watching them adapt to society was a bit of an eye opener. Some times the movie punches you in the gut, like when the talk about religious "organizations" and how Fat everyone in the city seems to be, but the blow is softer cause it's coming from children. But Captain Fantastic is not all one sided, detailing some down qualities of living in the wild , like the eldest son's overzealous first encounter with the opposite sex or the fact that It was the parents choice to live out in the woods, not the child's. Mortensen played the part well of a man who sometimes got too clouded by his beliefs of doing the right thing by his family and who sometimes went to far to prove a point. Also like Frank Langella's character, the father who just lost his daughter and blames his son-in-law. It's was good cause you really know people like the character he plays. Steve Zahn and Kathryn Hahn were also terrific in the movie playing yin to Ben's yang, as parents who don't fully see eye to eye with what he's doing. Overall, everyone has a upbringing different from everyone else and Captain Fantastic takes that statement to a different level, but at it's core, he's just a parent who loves his children and is trying to do the best he can in a difficult time. This theme radiates from Mortensen and the rest of the cast, which is what makes it so Fantastic.

Aesthetically on high-level, questioning the most important points of human life and importance of verbal, mental, physical, social, emotional development and the inability of developing them all on the same level. There are so many factors that influence one's development. And there is space for many mistakes.

High quality acting. Viggo Mortensen gives one of his best performances, a devoted father that wants only the best for his kids, an authority, a leader, a teacher, loving, loyal husband, a grieving human with tough, determined, honest attitude he transmits to his children. Kids, from the youngest to the oldest, act with such naturalness that you simply dive in this masterfully-made journey.

Film doesn't show how one should live and not live because both sides are flawed. Internal and external conflicts make you question the reality of the present, giving you space to find your own balance of how one should live.

I personally started thinking of how there is a massive space for improvement in every field of our lives. An example is school. And how devastating it is that one could neglect the knowledge at that extant. Kids need to be inspired and motivated to learn. And more important is that they have to build inner-motivation that will make them interested and ambitious as they improve the world around them. And of course kids can't be accused for not wanting to learn if the teachers don't show them how and why to love their subject. And of course parents to support them.

This (above) is just one point of where this movie has taken my entranced mind.

This is a movie for every generation. It needs to be noticed, it deserves to be talked about, and discussed. Because that is the point of Captain Fantastic.