Four stars. Rated R, for profanity and occasional chaste nudity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.22.16
Cannes winners can be obtuse,
maddeningly weird and deadly dull; this is, after all, the film festival that
bestowed a Palme d’Or upon 2011’s execrable Tree of Life.
 |
| Ben (Viggo Mortensen, center) and four of his children — from left, Bo (George MacKay), Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton, partly obscured), Vespyr (Annalise Basso) and Kielyr (Samantha Isler) — gather their most recent homemade craft goods, in anticipation of a routine visit to the nearest trading post. |
On the other hand, other entries
are quirky, imaginative and unexpectedly endearing, as is the case with Captain Fantastic, which took this
year’s Un Certain Regard Directing
Prize and was nominated for the overall Un
Certain Regard Award.
Matt Ross is best known as a busy
television actor with ongoing roles in eccentric shows such as American Horror Story and Silicon Valley; he occasionally
moonlights as a filmmaker. His big-screen feature debut — 2012’s 28 Hotel Rooms — didn’t amount to much,
but Captain Fantastic is guaranteed
to change his career. Ross’ sensitively calculated script is matched by his delicate
direction; he’s also blessed with an ensemble cast that rises to this quite unusual
occasion.
I never cease to be amazed,
having spent so much time studying our century-old film medium, by the
continuing emergence of fresh stories told in captivating ways. “Captain
Fantastic” is unconventional and challenging, to be sure; but it’s also
poignant, shrewdly perceptive and a subtly critical statement of our times.
That’s a lot of subtext for an idiosyncratic little indie, but Ross pulls it
off.
Mostly because, at its core, this
also is a story of the love and loyalty that bonds a family: something
everybody can relate to.
Our introduction to Ben Cash
(Viggo Mortensen) and his six children is unexpected, to say the least: all
seven of them mud-smeared, in order to blend into forest foliage while stalking
a deer. It’s a bloody rite of passage for eldest son Bo (George MacKay), who
brings down the creature with a knife. Ross doesn’t shy from the gore.
Neither do any of Bo’s siblings,
down to youngsters Zaja (Shree Crooks) and Nai (Charlie Shotwell), who revel
equally in this feral ritual. The carcass is taken home, skinned and dressed by
15-year-old twins Vespyr and Kielyr (Annalise Basso and Samantha Isler).
Everybody washes up and tackles assigned chores, later assembling for rigorous
calisthenics and a grueling run through the woods.
Later, after night has fallen,
they gather around a crackling fire, quietly reading weighty books on science
(Jared Diamond) and philosophy (Noam Chomsky), or challenging fiction such as
George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Somehow
sensing when his children have had enough, Ben teases a quiet song on his
guitar; Bo joins him. Twelve-year-old Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton) displays a
rebellious streak by inserting an aggressive drum beat; there’s a breathless
moment, as his siblings wait to see how their father will handle this
intrusion, but Ben smiles and modifies his own playing to follow the beat. The
others, relieved, laugh and dance as the family makes music together.
