Captain Fantastic

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2:31

Captain Fantastic

R

2016

1h 59m

Comedy

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

82%

Tomatometer

227 Reviews

85%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen), his wife Leslie and their six children live deep in the wilderness of Washington state. Isolated from society, Ben and Leslie devote their existence to raising their kids -- educating them to think critically, training them to be physically fit and athletic, guiding them in the wild without technology and demonstrating the beauty of co-existing with nature. When Leslie dies suddenly, Ben must take his sheltered offspring into the outside world for the first time.

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Critics Consensus

Captain Fantastic's thought-provoking themes -- and an absorbing starring turn from Viggo Mortensen -- add up to an above-average family drama with unexpected twists.

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Karen Han

CutPrintFilm

Dec 8, 2017

5/10

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.

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Tara Brady

Irish Times

Dec 28, 2016

4/5

Fantastic, indeed.

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Danny Leigh

Financial Times

Dec 28, 2016

4/5

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.

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Matt Oakes

Silver Screen Riot

Oct 14, 2026

B+

'Captain Fantastic' is the anarchist's cookbook of indie road movies; a cherry bomb of heart and good humor that blissfully ignores the virtues of normalcy for the ecstasy of experimentation.

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JD Duran

InSession Film

Aug 19, 2024

A

Captain Fantastic thrives on comedy that knows when to peek its head and when to let drama and emotion carry the audience. Alex Somers score provocatively amplifies each of those elements...

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Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

Sep 8, 2023

... a road movie, a family drama, a tale of loss, and a loving portrait of an alternative family that is prepared to face everything but the modern world.

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Marie C

@tmc1124 1 day ago

One of my top five movies of all time. A thoughtful look at grief, rejecting group think, and the consequences of rigid thinking. Nuanced and authentic, this movie examines the contradictions of our society without offering easy answers. The acting is exemplary.

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Rich X

@RT67602146 Oct 25, 2026

Take note people. If you leave hollywood to raise your kids they'll be turned into political soldiers. Romanticising borderline abuse and political indoctrination of kids tells you all you need to know about how corrupt the movie industry truly is.

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Bryan K

@RT05207103 Oct 20, 2026

Lets raise crazy people in the woods, oh yeah down with the patriarchy and capitalism and any traditional values.

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Wesley L

@RT29197328 Oct 8, 2026

This movie is one of my favorite movies of all time. Gotta be in my top 3, maybe top 5.

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Scott F

@safisher11 Sep 17, 2026

Pretentious, virtue signaling, communist douche raises more liberals in the woods.

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Jason B

@jbourne Sep 5, 2026

An atrocious, pretentious, failure of a comedy. A radically philosophically moralizing film. The protagonist, Ben, is such a narcissistic, self-righteous hippie I just couldn’t finish the film and switched it off at the hour mark. Nothing was comedic about it. There are odd references to child sexuality, which was also off-putting and made me raise an eyebrow. A fully nude rear scene of the 8 year old girl and a full frontal nude of the father, Ben, were two such instances, in addition to the father graphically describing to his youngest daughter sexual intercourse while on a ride to their family’s house. No shade on Viggo Mortensen, who did well with the part he was given. But the rest of the characters felt hollow, the script felt more moralizing than realistic, and I could not suspend disbelief enough to enjoy this movie. Easily one of the worst full length films I’ve ever had to waste my time on. It could have been better if it had been thought-provoking, but it was not.

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Matt Ross

Director

Viggo Mortensen

Ben

Frank Langella

Jack

George MacKay

Bodevan

Samantha Isler

Kielyr

Annalise Basso

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Synopsis

Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen), his wife Leslie and their six children live deep in the wilderness of Washington state. Isolated from society, Ben and Leslie devote their existence to raising their kids -- educating them to think critically, training them to be physically fit and athletic, guiding them in the wild without technology and demonstrating the beauty of co-existing with nature. When Leslie dies suddenly, Ben must take his sheltered offspring into the outside world for the first time.

Director: Matt Ross
Producer: Lynette Howell Taylor, Jamie Patricof, Shivani Rawat, Monica Levinson
Screenwriter: Matt Ross
Distributor: Bleecker Street Media
Production Co: Electric City Entertainment
Rating: R (Language|Brief Graphic Nudity)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 8, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 11, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.9M
Runtime: 1h 59m

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