Review of Captain Fantastic (2016) by Ian G — 20 Nov 2016

Captain Fantastic is one of those odd fest entries, in this case from Sundance 2016 wanting to cash in on the Little Miss Sunshine market with the odd family on the roadtrip genre, in this case surrounding the abrupt death of their mother steaming from her battle with Bipolar disorder, and while coming to commemorate her dealing with their belief systems coming into question since they were living off the grid in a budhist mindset and being home schooled, encountering basic stuff we take for granted as they are experiencing for the first time.

The dynamics especially with the grandparents, most notably with Frank Langella are very well acted when Vigo Mortensen single parent parenting style comes into question as well as what is in the best interest for the deceased and the family as a whole since the majority don't share the practices she did.

Captain Fantastic is very hyper intelligent as if Viggo and his family are part of the 1% but on the off the grid set so might be off putting for some, but the ackward encounters more than make up for that fact.

Only major dettrement for the film is how the final resting place for the mom is settled since it seemed contrary to what the family had worked out, but otherwise it was a decent little film right down to the Sweet Child of Mine cover in the closing moments.