Chris Jordan reviews the excellent new
indie drama with Viggo Mortensen, in theaters now.
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| "That title puts me in the mood for some Elton John covers..." |
The summer of 2016 is turning out to be
a bit of an unusual one at the movies, with an uncommonly embattled
and divisive lineup of blockbusters
counterbalanced by a very strong and experimental season of indies,
led by The Lobster and
Swiss Army Man. Into
that fray comes Captain Fantastic,
a film with a title that humorously evokes images of superheroes, but
is very much the antidote to summer movies with more flash than soul.
A thoughtful, eccentric, emotionally complex drama about a dad and
his children facing the painful differences between the world they
want and the world that really is, writer/director Matt Ross's film
is a small masterpiece. It is also built around a brilliant central
performance from Viggo Mortensen, demonstrating once again that he
may be one of his generation's finest actors. Captain
Fantastic easily belongs on the
already-illustrious list of 2016's great indies, and is one of this
summer's best films, period.
Mortensen
plays the patriarch of a hippie family, raising his six kids in an
idyllic wilderness settlement where they grow their own food, live
among nature, and study philosophy and political theory far away from
the capitalist greed and corruption of modern society. But modern
society comes crashing back into his utopia when his wife dies, and
he and the kids must go visit her less-than-approving family for her
funeral. Their journey through the world they have been raised to
stand against tests the extremity of their lifestyle, their complex
feelings about it, and their hopes and anxieties about the future of
their unusual family unit. For the kids, this takes the shape of a
coming-of-age story as they explore a society that is alien to them;
for Mortensen's middle-aged hippie, it presents an unexpected
challenge to the worldview he thought he had figured out years ago.
For all of them, the core struggle is the painful dissonance between
the perfect world they have built for themselves, and the heavily
compromised world that won't be locked out.
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| "We caught that hat ourselves, somewhere outside Rivendell." |
What
makes this film so powerful is that it exists in a very realistically
complex space where there is no grand cinematic conflict, or good
guys and bad guys; it is all difficult-to-navigate shades of ethical
gray. Every character in the film is relatable, understandable, and
ultimately likable despite their flaws, but they also all have
serious issues they need to deal with. They all clearly want to do
the right thing for themselves and their loved ones, but are honestly
lost as to what that right thing is. Mortensen's Ben Cash very
clearly loves his kids and is trying to give them the perfect life: a
life where they are healthy and at one with nature, where they learn
to be strong and self-reliant, and where the mind-numbing excesses of
American culture are replaced by the writings of Noam Chomsky. But he
doesn't see how he has isolated them so heavily from the world that
he has made them unable to relate to anyone their own age who isn't
one of their siblings. The kids are similarly conflicted between
their love for their wilderness society (and their contempt for the
fat capitalist sheep that surround them) and their desire to explore
the rest of the world and experience the things that all other kids
do. Even Ben's father in law (Frank Langella), who at first comes off
as antagonistically opposed to Ben's hippie ways, is ultimately just
a concerned grandpa who is worried about the well-being of his
grandkids. That no one is a villain, and everyone is coming from an
understandable point of view, makes the dilemmas that they face all
the more poignant, difficult, and real. The characters are in unique
positions as people who have decided firmly to set their own rules,
rather than living by society's... but setting your own rules can be
really hard and lonely.
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| "Over there is a debate about the merits and flaws of Ghostbusters and Star Trek Beyond. We're going to stay far away from that." |
While
Viggo Mortensen's beautifully complex performance is the heart and
soul of the film, the rest of the cast is equally strong. The six
kids are all excellent: totally natural, and emotionally insightful.
The familial bond that they share feels quite real, and one can't
help but suspect that the comraderie forged between the cinematic
family members on set must have been strong. In particular, George
MacKay (11.22.63) is
fantastic as Ben's oldest son, who at 18 years old is starting to
really worry about what his unconventional existence means for his
future. Frank Langella brings a deceptively sensitive complexity to
the outwardly-abrasive, conservative father-in-law, turning what
could have easily been an antagonistic character into another
understandable human. Writer/director Matt Ross (an actor most
recognizable from Silicon Valley and
the first season of American Horror Story)
cultivates this complexity with a sure, subtle hand, and a confident
artistic vision. The style of the film is equally strong: a Richard
Linklater-esque slice-of-life, with beautiful cinematography
capturing the wilderness settings and channeling Ben's philosophy of
oneness with nature. With Captain Fantastic,
Ross absolutely becomes an indie director to look out for.
This
summer has given us no shortage of indie films to get excited about,
and Captain Fantastic is
one of the best yet. It is definitely more accessible (and less
weird) than Swiss Army Man
and The Lobster, which
will hopefully allow it to get a bit more mainstream traction, and it
is at least as good as either of those. With its compellingly human
themes, confident artistic voice, and great cast lead by Mortensen in
top form, this definitely belongs on the must-see list of films in
theaters this season. Don't miss it.
Score:
-
Christopher S. Jordan