j* movie reviews 2020

Captain Fantastic (2016)

An anti-hero story of one man and his family escaping their way out life in the woods.

There aren't really that many films that take this angle - a man raising a family as super-predators and super-philosophers in the wilderness. Probably the only similar film I can think of is Hannah. And both open with a killing of a deer... a sort of sacred nod to the circle of life and wildness of nature red in tooth and claw. It's a scene that sets the tone of man as part of nature nicely.

This story though, is complicated by an absent mother committing suicide, and the race to attend her funeral and liberate her body through cremation. There is a lot of conflict between different parts of the family, as there often is. It provides a really clear example of how confusing funerals can be when some people feel they knew a very different human than others.

This film does a really good job of showcasing this kind of fairly extreme home-schooling or unschooling, both the good and bad. Whilst we're lead to believe the kids have learnt to be free thinkers, it's also pretty apparent they're mostly parrotting the views of their father teacher.

I relate far to much to the kid Zaja. I love her catskin hat. I love her skull collection and her general dark vibes. I was her, the kid always dissecting some dead thing and learning about what makes a body tick.

It's an interesting film, but maybe not for the faint hearted.

J* gives it 4 stars.