Viggo Mortensen plays a hippie-like father named Ben. Ben and his six kids live off the grid in the wild. No phone, no running water, no nothing. But, when Ben’s wife dies, the children want to attend their mother’s funeral in New Mexico. Initially, Ben resists. He doesn’t want to return to civilization. But the kids wear him down and before too long, Ben and his children are traveling the highways in a converted school bus. Part of this movie centers around the education Ben is giving his kids. They can track animals and kill them for food. The kids are reading Middlemarch and listening to Bach. His eldest son can speak six languages. At a key point in the movie, the eight-year-old little girl starts quoting from The Bill of Rights. Ben then asks her to give her opinion of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Things start to unravel when Ben and his kids crash the funeral of their mother. Grandpa (Frank Langella) hates Ben and has him thrown out of the church. More unraveling. Ben finally has to face the fact that his educational methods haven’t readied his children for the Real World. Captain Fantastic will stay in your thoughts long after you walk out of the theater. GRADE: A-
Brill, thanks George – am hoping to go see this when it open here this weekend.
Sergio, expect a very different kind of a movie. CAPTAIN FANTASTIC is a bit bizarre, but well worth watching.
Shows how out of touch with modern movies I am that I never heard of it until now.
I like Viggo Mortensen – Lord of the Rings, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises.
Jeff, Viggo plays a very good role in CAPTAIN FANTASTIC. Memorable, in fact.
It sounds like thought provoking movie. It’ll be netflix for me, though.
I have the Yul Brynner Magnificent 7 on my dvr, and hope to get thru it before the remake is out
Maggie, I have zero interest in the remake of THE MAGNIFICENT 7. It looks like another flop.
Why would they remake that? It’s like remaking PSYCHO (not one of Viggo’s better choices, by the way). Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach, Charles Bronson.
Who thinks this needed an update?
Jeff, as always someone thought the remake would make money. WRONG!
given chris pratt’s high profile now, it might do better than we might think the only other’s i’ve been able to recognize in the trailer are denzel washington and than hawke oh, and kiefer sutherland as the villain
Maggie, my students don’t really know what a “Western” is. I think it will be a hard sell.
Also, the Elmer Bernstein score was great.
Denzel, Chris Pratt, and Ethan Hawke pale (so to speak) in comparison to the original.
Jeff, is it just me or has the quality of movie music gone downhill in the past five years?
Somehow I missed this one. Not sure why. Oh, well there’s always streaming now.
Patti, you and Phil would really enjoy CAPTAIN FANTASTIC!
We’re still streaming music documentaries. Last night was GREENWICH VILLAGE: MUSIC THAT DEFINED A GENERATION.
One group I’d never heard of was The Big Three, led by Cass Elliot and Jim Hendricks (who she married in an unconsummated, platonic way to keep out of the draft), who later evolved from this folk trio into The Mugwumps (with Denny Doherty, John Sebastian, and Zal Yanofsky), which led to the Mamas and the Papas and The Lovin’ Spoonful. They had footage of them doing a song.
Jeff, I’ll have to find GREENWICH VILLAGE.
Anything about The Village Gate (jazz venue) or is it all rock stuff?
This is another one that I’ll skip, but then I skip most of them, don’t I? I did see the trailer for Doctor Strange and thought that film looked interesting.
Rick, I grew up reading DOCTOR STRANGE comics so the movie is a must-see for me! Can’t wait for the November 4 opening!
Rick, it is ALL about the folk music of the late ’50s and all of the 1960’s. They mention people who went on the other things but it is about Oscar Brand (still alive at 96, Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, The Weavers, Pete Seeger (outside the Weavers), Woody Guthrie (and Arlo), Kris Kristofferson, Eric Anderson, Izzy Young (who closed his Folklore Center in the mid-1970s and moved to Sweden, where he still lives at 88 and owns a similar place there), etc. plus the Cafe Wha? and The Bottom Line and others.
Jackie liked it more than some of the others we’ve been watching because there was more music.
GREENWICH VILLAGE: MUSIC
That sounds good to an old folk geezer like me – though I wasn’t unhappy when Bob Dylan “discovered” Rock/electrified music … 🙂
And I still liked GREENWICH VILLAGE when I showed it to my wife on our visit to NYC a few years ago – and she also liked it!
I had a dentist named Dr. Strange!
Bob, did your Doctor Strange use the Eye of Agamotto on you?
Here’s an interesting article including an interview with Mortensen – enjoy!
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/08/viggo-mortensen-on-actors-behaving-like-babies-and-why-he-wont-vote-for-hillary-captain-fantastic
He is/was a supporter of Sanders and describes his position.
Wolf, I’ve always been impressed by the roles Mortensen has chosen to play. He doesn’t play it safe. Thanks for the link!