Captain Fantastic Film Review

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Captain Fantastic – Film Review



Captain Fantastic is a quirky original story about an off-the-grid family who live the American wilderness.



Their father, Ben (Mortensen) teaches his six children survival skills and home schools them with an eclectic curriculum. When tragedy strikes, the family is forced to leave the comforts of home on a road trip across America. When confronted by well-meaning relatives, Ben starts to question the choices he made about raising their family away from consumerism and a modern world.



This movie was written and director by the talented Matt Ross (also an actor). I'm looking forward to seeing more from Matt, who won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. Overall the movie has many humorous moments where the story pokes fun at our 'first world problems', but the film has a serious side with the right amount of sadness.



The movie touches on themes of consumerism, the stigma of having a mental illness and the ethics of how we obtain our food. The juxtaposition of the 'normal' American boys playing a hyper-violent video game, but not being age appropriate to discuss suicide is something to ponder.



Ultimately the movie shows us that we have lost our survival instincts and animal side. Afterwards, I wanted to get back out in nature and climb mountains.

If you don't know who Noam Chomsky is, then you might like to find out about him before you see the movie.

Highly recommended.



Captain Fantastic is coming to cinemas in Australia from Thursday 8th September 2016.

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