Matt Ross
Captain Fantastic

Arguing in some cases is not well regarded. Because, like it or not, for many people arguing means talking about something while playing I win or you win. And when someone is convinced they have to win, and by nature is also a bit pissed off, arguing loses all constructive connotations.

This introduction serves no purpose but replaces the one where I lash out at those who complain about useless reviews. Those really piss me off and since I don't want to argue, I changed it; then with the introduction of arguing, I can play a very clever move and link it to the fact that the idea for the film in question, Captain Fantastic, is said to have arisen from a discussion between the director and his wife, a discussion about the education to be given to their children. One of those things like

-hey, but as soon as they're three, do we fill them with tablets?-

-are you crazy? They won't touch it until they're 16-

-but then they'll be out of touch with the world, do you want a monster or a child?-

-I don't care, I lived decades without a tablet, and besides, who the hell will care about tablets soon, they'll end up like cameras: smartphone, camera, and tablet are destined to converge into a single product, let's get them a seven-inch smartphone with a 24-megapixel camera-

-what a move! But I was talking about moderate use dedicated only to stuff like games and reading, those things we've always done, only with updated tools! As for the phone, they shouldn't know what it is until at least, I don't know, 10 years, unless they're away from us or traveling-

-oh, traveling alone without us at 10 years is fine, but no smartphone. Listen, let me write a screenplay, here, you play with my tablet because you're right, in two years it’ll be junk; and give the little one the Legos, they're always a good choice and stimulate creativity and urination.

The result is a family composed of a father, mother, and five or six children, choosing to isolate themselves from the world and live in a forest; no comforts (but lots of physical exercise), no medicine (meditation and mens sana in corpore sano), no technology (but plenty of reading and music at will), no school (but lots of study, from biological sciences to the foundations of socialism), no vegan or vegetarian philosophies, fortunately: if you want meat, no problem, you get it yourself, kid, hunt.

In short, nothing new compared to those alternative communities that the most skeptical see working more to make their principles unassailable than to give meaning to their future. Because, once it's clear that the utopian reality after half an hour of film will have to come down to earth and clash with the damn American society, and once it's established that the praise of compromise is a bit like ending a speech by saying there are no longer intermediate seasons, it leaves me a bit bland.

To be clear: to play the game of paradox, before pointing out the flaws of a system that seems perfect, the film highlights with phosphorescent Stabilo the culture and acumen of the little heirs of good Viggo Mortensen. But the eldest harbors an uncontainable desire to go to university, while the father is against it. So, one wonders what the protagonist expects for the future: to start and finish his and his children’s life isolated from the world?

For me, the fundamental problem is this: there’s clearly something pure, liberating, tender, understandable, but it leaned too much towards a family convinced that Black Mirror is not a TV series but rather a series of images extracted from the mind of a precog. If you know what I mean. And it's this kind of complacency that forced the script into a somewhat flat drift (the compromise), the insertion of irony in the style of "Silver Linings", without explaining the meaning of such a community choice but disguising it selfishly as protection for themselves and the family, managing at least to avoid a presumption that when it comes to education, ethics, society, and many other things, can cause the situation to get out of hand. Or result in a gem that, unfortunately, is not here.

Not sure if you’ve ever experienced when you decide: shall we get a pizza? Or cook something? And there's someone who says: well, if we get the pizza, it’s no hassle! But it costs more. If we cook something, it's a bit of hassle, but at least we save money, so FOR ME IT’S THE SAME.