Captain Fantastic is one of those niche movies, that gets inside you, leaves you with something but that will hardly ever become a box office phenomenon. The classic niche movie.
The challenge that Matt Ross poses is tearing him and the viewer apart.
In this hyper-globalised era, is it possible to press the pause button and alienate oneself from the world as a form of rebellion against the system and self-determination? How bad can this choice be for our children?
It is no coincidence that the protagonists of this story are a group of people and not just one person, it is no coincidence that an unconventional and anarchist family takes the reins of the narrative.
A family of which we do not know the lineage, the surname, this formalism that for centuries allows us to identify family nuclei and descendants.
Patriarch Ben has many children and for each of them he has chosen a proper name that is unique in the true sense of the word, an unconventional name that you won't find in any other family, anywhere else in the world. Boseman, Vespyr, Rellian and so on are children of an abnormal family led by Ben and his wife on an unconventional path compared to the canons of today's society.
Some might call them savages, others visionaries.

"Interesting is a non-word!"

Ben's children don't go to any school.
They're self-taught. They read a lot of books and know by heart the American constitution and the various political and social philosophies that have passed through the centuries.
Ben's children don't go to McDonalds or the supermarket but they feed on what they hunt, what they grow.
Ben's children don't go to the mall but they procure and build most of the basic necessities that they might need to live on.
Ben's children do not respect social conventions in any way, but they are educated to survive, they are enormously cultured, they know how to heal a wound, they know how to light a fire, they know how to climb a mountain, they know how to fight, they know how to think.
Think...
What an obsolete verb in a society where the only thought seems to be that of spending, consuming, getting rich, impoverishing, chatting, playing the playstation.
To form one's own thought is useful to form oneself, it is useful to think, to reason, to discern right from wrong, to make conscious choices.
Our children today don't know how to think, they weren't taught how to turn on their brains, but they were passively created a world in which to immerse themselves as in a bowl full of water where they can swim in a circle without going further.
Ben's boys are out of this world but they have their own culture, their own identity and seem to be happy.
But how far will this go? How far will this really make them better? How long will they be able to exist without coming into contact with the system that they are fighting in their own small way?
A family drama will push Ben to start their big bus and bring the family into America, which they fight viscerally day after day to the sound of books and experiences in the wilderness.
This journey will open a thousand questions and sink into a thousand contradictions.
Can a brilliant boy like Boseman continue to live in the woods or would it be fairer to fly to Princeton to study and establish himself?
Can children, despite having developed above-average intelligence, continue not to attend school?
Is it correct that these children are full of bruises and small wounds due to their wild but free life or would it be more right to "shut them up" within 4 walls? How should they be protected?
Is continuing to marginalize the best way to emancipate themselves?
The world out there doesn't work, the system makes us worse but it is still our world.
Is hiding from it the best way to fight it?
It's a series of questions that the film doesn't shy away from, but tackles blow by blow by blow, trying to set the rhythm to the sound of controversy, clashes and tight but often full of silence.
There is so much love in this anarchic world and so many rules in spite of the longed-for anarchy. Living it deeply is the best way to get rich, but leaving a small space for openness to the outside world is perhaps the best tool to ensure that this anarchy is not wasted.
Viggo Mortensen is intense and sublime in his role as Ben. His children are delightfully free in their movements and hopes.
Captain Fantastic is a free film with a capital L that makes us think and teaches us to think, with our heads through this weird and wonderful family.