|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Captain Fantastic
A film by Matt Ross
Plot (Spoiler Alert)Ben lives in the forest with his six kids. Bo, Kielyr, Vespyr, Rellian, Zaja and Nai. Ben’s wife, Leslie, has been sick for a while and her parents watch over her while Ben looks after their kids. Ben gets the news that Leslie committed suicide. Ben’s father in law, Jack, tells him through phone to stay away from the funeral, but Ben and the kids decide to go anyway and travel through bus to get there.Sundance premiere 
Blaine: Ben is not afraid to let the truth out in front of his kids and it’s interesting parenting the way he does it. He’s also not afraid to expose himself. He prepares his kids too early by telling them what sex is including the youngest ones and they don’t mind it. He is not afraid to tell them what adult life is like and for some reason I’m impressed with that. Ben teaches his kids how to survive out in the wilderness, he home schools them, he taught them how to grow food, be physical, be hunters and how to speak other languages. They are smart because they’ve read a lot of books and they are very bright kids. They even know how to use a knife and they all love using the knives and I mean all. The kids have spent so much time in the wilderness that they don’t know what life is like outside the forest. Some of them have been outside the woods and to go down to the market with Ben to sell stuff and pick up mail, it’s just the youngest who have hardly been out of the forest. They don’t watch television I do’t think, but they do listen to music. Viggo Mortensen, who plays Ben, knows about being in harmony with the natural environment because he used to live in Northern Idaho and that’s where he did his preparation like lighting fires, cooking and gardening. Matt Ross believed they would find the right kids for these roles and all they needed was time and patience and they casted people from different countries like England, Australia and Canada. What they needed were kids who were physically active, strong, say the language and knew what they were talking about and could play instruments. None of the stuff they do in the film is fake. The kids had to prepare themselves before shooting by training through rock climbing, survival camp, a bow and arrow lesson and yoga and they bonded through that. Those kids learned a lot because of this movie not just by the physical stuff, but also by reading books as well. Because these kids are intelligent and know so much that the young actors became intelligent themselves. I know of Matt Ross as an actor and one of the best ways to understand actors is being an actor yourself and to direct an ensemble movie you have to like actors. Viggo Mortensen said a lot of what the actors did in this movie is because of Matt and "the best directors do a great job of casting, then they let you do your thing, they watch and pay attention to everything and they can sense almost before you do when your in trouble and not sure what is going on, but they help you solve the problems. And then sometimes they’ll be brave enough to say I don’t know and let’s just try it again and it helps take off the pressure". Matt’s inspiration for “Captain Fantastic” came from his childhood. He lived in hippie communes as a kid in Northern California and his mom started one and he lived in a tepee all summer and there was no tv and no radio and he said that was aspirational for him. There’s a scene where they get pulled over by a cop and pretend that they are people who spread the word of God and sing a song and that is a way to get a cop off your back. One of the kids, Rellian, starts to feel they could have a different life instead of being freaks of nature and he blames Ben for that. There is always someone in the family who thinks very different from the others. When the kids’ cousins are showing them video games, they are sort of freaked out except for Rellian. He shows a huge liking to it fast. He’s thinking "this is the kind of life I want where I can go to school with people my own age and play video games with friends". Bo isn’t the brightest with women because Ben hasn’t taught him much what there is to know about them. Bo is the oldest one of Ben’s children and he is starting to realize how attractive women his age are. He meets a girl who finds him interesting and takes a liking to him, but then he proposes to her shortly after they meet and she believes it’s a joke so he didn’t fuck up big time so that’s good. He also made it look like he was rehearsing for a play. Ben thought he knew everything about his wife, but apparently he chose to ignore the fact that she wanted change for the children. After his daughter, Vespyr, almost gets seriously hurt, Ben realizes that maybe his kids do deserve better and he has to let Jack and Abigail raise them from now on. But the kids can’t because they are who they are today because of how he raised them. In the end they say their goodbyes to both Leslie, by cremating her body and flushing the ashes down a toilet, and Bo is leaving the nest to go to college. And before he leaves Ben gives him tips on what he has to know about girls. If I were Ben I would have said “Don’t propose or say I love you because that is rushing things”, but he probably already said it to him earlier. And things change for Ben and his kids. He allows them to go to school, explore new things and they live on a farm now. It’s nice to know things will get better for them even though life wasn’t so bad for them before, but still. And I’m glad they stay together and things work out in the end. My rating on “Captain Fantastic” is five out of five stars. Song: Sweet Cild O’ Mine sung by Viggo Mortensen, George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalise Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Kirk Ross & Philip Klein Annalise Basso, Shree Crooks, Viggo Mortensen and Charlie Shotwell flipping off the photographers at the Cannes Film Festival 2016 
|