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Captain Fantastic

Captain Fantastic Image by Electric City

By Simi Horwitz December 27, 2016

‘Captain Fantastic” is noteworthy for its refreshing views of an authoritarian patriarch, Ben Cash (a terrific performance by Viggo Mortensen), gussied up as a forward-thinking intellectual. Dad’s political motto is “Stick It to the Man,” and he celebrates Noam Chomsky’s birthday instead of Christmas. His children are conversant in Marx, “Middlemarch” and Yo-Yo Ma, but are unable to cope with the real world. Cash, a professor on sabbatical, takes his kids deep into the forests of the Pacific Northwest to make it as survivalists. The kids have no social skills and are a source of amusement to the youngsters they encounter. It’s obvious they would be better off with their grandfather (the always excellent Frank Langella) a no-nonsense, church-going, super-wealthy pillar of the community. The film regrettably closes on a sentimental note, but it nonetheless offers an original and compelling portrait of a classic narcissist who is as uncompromising in his “radical” views as he is devoid of common sense and empathy.

Simi Horwitz is a feature writer and film reviewer based in New York City. Her writing has been recognized by the Society for Feature Journalism, the New York Press Club, and the Los Angeles Press Club.

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