Film Review: Captain Fantastic

Looking at the posters for Captain Fantastic, with its animated background and family clad in bright suits and knee-socks, one could be forgiven for expecting a whimsical Wes Anderson-esque romp. But director Matt Ross is a unique auteur all his own. Blending offbeat comedy with weighty philosophical questions, his original film simply begs for post-viewing conversation and debate. 
Viggo Mortensen’s innate soulfulness and ferocity is perfectly deployed in Ben, patriarch of the unique Cash family. Ben, a radical anti-capitalist, is raising his six children completely off-the-grid in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Like Peter Pan’s Lost Boys raised in Plato’s Republic, Ben’s kids are expert hunters and survivalists who worship Noam Chomsky, Karl Marx – and their father.
In many ways, the Cash clan embodies a liberal dream of philosophical self-sufficiency. But when a family funeral forces the Cash family to interact with society, the culture-clash humour soon gives way to deeper questions about parenting, love, abuse and ideas of normalcy. 
Ross ensures that all of Ben’s children have distinct personalities, and their precocious intelligence is charming and funny. But as they fail to connect with their crushes and pop-culture-obsessed cousins, their hilarious and cringe-worthy interactions give way to more serious questions. Is intellectualism really more covetable than social fluency? And has Ben really taught his children to think critically, or merely to parrot his socialist opinions? 
There are no easy answers, and Ross’ wickedly funny writing is never overbearing or didactic, allowing the questions to linger.
Cinematographer Stephane Fontaine captures the harsh beauty of the Cash family lifestyle and their surrounding landscape. Like the power Ben wields over his children, it is idyllic and dark in equal measure.