While the spirit of the movie is admirable, the constant tirades by the Cash family against typical society grow repetitive and lose their impact as a result, even as a device to show the difficulties in processing grief.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Dec 8, 2017

Fantastic, indeed.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 28, 2016

There are many tonal plates being spun here; the lack of a deafening crash is impressive. It comes down, you suspect, to the film's embrace of its own contradictions.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 28, 2016

[It] shines as a sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy for a certain outdoors-oriented mind set, which almost makes up for its over-the-top moments and underwritten characters.

| Nov 21, 2016

This is really a movie for upper-middle class hipsters who once fancied themselves firebrands and status quo-challengers in college, but now consider only buying organic food at Whole Foods and not vaccinating their kids to be radical acts.

| Sep 12, 2016

He may not be a superhero, but in terms of imagination, this captain really can fly.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2016

The film has a very clear sense of where it is going until the final reel, at which point it begins to founder.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 9, 2016

A more interesting version of the film would allow us to see him as either a flawed but noble hero or a deluded bully on an ego trip. But Ross is too in love with the character not to stack the deck in his favour.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 9, 2016

This debut feature from writer-director Matt Ross is a consistently interesting and involving exploration of an alternative lifestyle and how it works -- with all its pluses and minuses -- in the 21st century.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 9, 2016

Captain Fantastic is a powerful weepie with a career-high turn from Viggo Mortensen as a hippy father driving his six children to the funeral of their mother.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 9, 2016

The beauty of the film lies in its refusal to paint Ben as a deluded tyrant or principled pioneer. He doesn't have two faces - thanks to the script, as well as Mortensen's squirrely brilliance, he has hundreds.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 9, 2016

Lots of mixed messages, little in the way of excitement.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 9, 2016

The cast works diligently to find nuance in the material. They are no match, however, for a director who can't tell the difference between film-making and crowd-pleasing.

| Sep 8, 2016

Ross could have made a cheap crowd-pleaser about cool refuseniks, but so many of his touches complicate that dynamic that his film sets your mind working - and lets you do the thinking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 8, 2016

Writer-director Ross lapses into contrivance, narrative and emotional, but it'd be worse without Mortensen's utter conviction and that rugged, out-of-time mien which has served him well in stories of extremity from The Road to Jauja.

| Sep 6, 2016

A fiercely original, pleasantly unpredictable character piece. This is a gang of outsiders with something valuable to say about the world we live in.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 18, 2016

He bears the nickname of a comic book hero, the brains of a scholar, the soul of a rebel. And his story is a richly rewarding film experience.

| Aug 11, 2016

Captain Fantastic is in some ways a simplistic film - entertaining, though not especially deep. But Mortensen gives his all to the role.

| Jul 29, 2016

It's a single, beautifully realised vision with edge and a true heart.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 29, 2016

If you're buying what these filmmakers are selling, you'll be all in. Suffice it to say, I wasn't buying it.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 26, 2016