Captain Fantastic

Name: Captain Fantastic
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Released: July 8, 2016
Duration: 118 min
Rating: 72
Cast: Annalise Basso, Charlie Shotwell, Frank Langella, George MacKay, Kathryn Hahn

2016

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 350 Ratings

See All

7.8

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7.8	Your Score
7.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 350 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Captain Fantastic

Now Playing: Captain Fantastic

Movie Details & Credits

Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: July 8, 2016 | R

Starring: Annalise Basso, Charlie Shotwell, Frank Langella, George MacKay, Kathryn Hahn, Nicholas Hamilton, Samantha Isler, Shree Crooks, Trin Miller, Viggo Mortensen

Summary: In the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father (Viggo Mortensen) devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, challenging his idea of what it means to be a parent.

Director: Matt Ross

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 118 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

Ann Hornaday

Jul 14, 2016

Captain Fantastic leaves viewers with the cheering, deeply affecting image of a dad whose superpowers lie in simply doing the best that he can. Read full review

Rex Reed

Jul 6, 2016

Despite a frustrating fizzle of a finale, it’s a movie that enthralls the senses and engages the mind for two hours, proving no movie is too long when you’re having fun. Read full review

Lawrence Toppman

Jul 27, 2016

Mortensen has been ideally cast. He’s at his best playing fanatics, obsessives, people beyond the norm who can’t find their place in a quiet world. Read full review

Stephen Whitty

Jul 6, 2016

Gorgeously photographed, and as loosey-goosey as its hero, Captain Fantastic takes some unexpected turns. Is Ben eccentric or irresponsible? Is he raising free-thinking iconoclasts — or training a new generation of Unabombers? Read full review

Steve Davis

Jul 20, 2016

For a while, the freeing experience of the clan’s nonconformity gets tamped down, and the movie appears headed toward some kind of moralized conclusion. Once back on familiar ground, however, Captain Fantastic rights itself toward as happy an ending as possible, without too much compromise. Read full review

Joshua Rothkopf

Jul 8, 2016

The movie works best in the clan’s private world (even if rock climbing in the rain seems like poor parenting). But then it deflates: Frank Langella, normally a welcome presence, is clownishly directed as a mean grandfather, and the plot abandons its tensions too abruptly. Read full review

Keith Watson

Jul 15, 2016

The film is premised on a radical act that it buries beneath a grueling avalanche of quirk. Read full review

SEE ALL 36 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

Alfadas

Sep 7, 2022

A must see! Thoughtful and gripping storytelling. I feel so thankful and lucky that I stumbled upon this wonderful cinematic work. Also glad that I went to the cinema to see it, because finally I could support something that I truly want to see more of in the world. Beautiful stories well told.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Paulo_Jorge

Nov 5, 2016

And this one will go as the most beautiful family movie of 2016. So original, it portraits the pros and cons of following a different style of life than the one that society judges as "standard", a brilliand, smart, well written and acted drama / comedy.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Jenefer

Jul 30, 2016

Captain Fantastic is a deeply moving film addressing a common subject in a non traditional context with an optimistic ending.
We admired the stunning acting of Viggo and the delightful kids, specially Saja, The grandfather’s role did not fall into the expected cliché of the firm rigid man,Captain Fantastic is a deeply moving film addressing a common subject in a non traditional context with an optimistic ending.
We admired the stunning acting of Viggo and the delightful kids, specially Saja, The grandfather’s role did not fall into the expected cliché of the firm rigid man, rather a mild portrayal of one who understands the specific type of life the family has chosen with a soft objection to it.
The comic dialogues and humorous scenes were ticklish and eyebrow-lifting sometimes (Saja’s shocking commentaries) and the sad moments (the father driving back alone) were aspects that highlights the moral and ethical values of the movie and render it close to the heart while engaging the mind in the constant comparison between two opposites worlds.
My objections are; it should have a better title, Captain Fantastic sounds like a title for a comic book! and why it is listed at the bottom of the movies in the theatre?
Probably the last scene should be the family dancing around their mother’s corpse and the eldest son going to the university.
This last scene of the children sitting around a table while their father telling them to get ready to school appears static and a normal.
But it is a movie that deserves to be watched and admired.… Expand

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

amheretojudge

Apr 26, 2018

and in his place..

Captain Fantastic Despite of having a potential head start on its brilliant concept the feature relies upon the usual issues and properties of its genre and still surprisingly reaches to the place where the viewers may have been before but never experienced it like thisand in his place..

Captain Fantastic

Despite of having a potential head start on its brilliant concept the feature relies upon the usual issues and properties of its genre and still surprisingly reaches to the place where the viewers may have been before but never experienced it like this before. Matt Ross's work is plausible as a director but its writing skills overpowers it and feels a bit unsatisfactory as it itself fails to justify it whilst projecting the anticipated vision on screen. The young actors are supporting convincingly but at the heart of it lies a genuinely moving performance carried off by Viggo Mortensen as a single parent trying to befriend and teach his kids. Captain Fantastic is aware of its eerie bubble created on script and hence spends its first half on setting the characters through it after which it shows its bright and poetic colours that paints this stunning craft.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Spangle

Aug 7, 2016

Captain Fantastic's first two acts are brilliant, but its final act fails to live up to their standards. Featuring a phenomenal leading turn from Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic is a funny, charming, and moving little indie film from writer and director Matt Ross. A terrific calling cardCaptain Fantastic's first two acts are brilliant, but its final act fails to live up to their standards. Featuring a phenomenal leading turn from Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic is a funny, charming, and moving little indie film from writer and director Matt Ross. A terrific calling card for future success, Ross has established himself as a man to watch with a nearly phenomenal work that is his most mainstream film to date. The entire cast is more than able in this little indie film about a man and his kids who live in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. An incredibly philosophical film about child rearing, acceptance, and balance, the film is incredibly well-written with its characters carrying a considerable amount of nuance. Nobody is all good and nobody is all bad, instead there is an incredible amount of things we will never understand about those we encounter. The film does a great job balancing these themes, while still telling a truly engaging story and building a world that we can really dive into and enjoy. Overall, Captain Fantastic is a sneaky little indie film that has flashes of brilliance, but its ending is a really let down.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

DirigiblePulp

Feb 24, 2017

I never bought into this film's world of a delusional isolationist utopia and the obese capitalist automatons filling the outside world they fled from. It's used as a joke (how dumb this country is!) and as a way of courting empathy through the shared sense of superiority the audience hasI never bought into this film's world of a delusional isolationist utopia and the obese capitalist automatons filling the outside world they fled from. It's used as a joke (how dumb this country is!) and as a way of courting empathy through the shared sense of superiority the audience has following this family as the protagonist. It's also outrageously unbelievable -- the kids all know like 6 languages, have read all great works of literature, play instruments, are up to date on all monthly periodicals and science magazines, oh right and outrageously fit and well-fed and know how to hunt and farm and THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY! And the hypocrisy of their lifestyle going mostly unchallenged...

But that's not really what this film is about. It's about dealing with grief in the best way you can, however that may be, other people's beliefs and their customs be damned. You're allowed to feel how you want and deal with it as you please. Viggo is great as usual. Taken on those merits, the film works a little more than it doesn't.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

Spanky

Nov 11, 2018

What isn't in this Liberal/Leftist mish mash of ideology preaching, ranging from Moaism. Socialism, Stalinism, Marxism, Leninism, etc. To me, it was just one long political diatribe of nausea-ism. And don't forget Hollywood's nod to pedophilia with an unnecessary scene of a young naked girl.What isn't in this Liberal/Leftist mish mash of ideology preaching, ranging from Moaism. Socialism, Stalinism, Marxism, Leninism, etc. To me, it was just one long political diatribe of nausea-ism. And don't forget Hollywood's nod to pedophilia with an unnecessary scene of a young naked girl. No reason for it other than to be titillating and in your face child porno. Viggo Mortensen is too good of an actor to be in, and associated with, this piece of crap.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

SEE ALL 57 REVIEWS

76	#76 Most Discussed Movie of 2016
99	#99 Most Shared Movie of 2016