Captain Fantastic
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: July 8, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 14, 2016
Captain Fantastic leaves viewers with the cheering, deeply affecting image of a dad whose superpowers lie in simply doing the best that he can. Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 26, 2016
Anchored by Viggo Mortensen's prismatic portrayal of Ben, this is one of the summer's nicest movie surprises, and among its wisest. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 7, 2016
Ben is the family’s rock, and Mr. Mortensen gives the story unshakable grounding. He’s a star who doesn’t act like a star, yet everyone in his orbit feels his power. He and this strong, adventurous film deserve each other. Read full review
90
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJan 27, 2016
The movie really belongs to Mortensen, who allows Ben to be exasperating, arrogant and impatient but also warm, loving and caring. He’s a tough but adoring father, a grieving widower and an angry defender of his wife’s final wishes, and Mortensen plays all these notes and more with subtlety and grace. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJul 27, 2016
Mortensen has been ideally cast. He’s at his best playing fanatics, obsessives, people beyond the norm who can’t find their place in a quiet world. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJul 21, 2016
Written and directed by Matt Ross — who is perhaps best known for his role as Alby on the HBO series “Big Love” — the film raises questions not only about what it means to be a responsible parent but also about what constitutes a meaningful life. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 7, 2016
The film doesn't take sides, but it does fairly, subtly and movingly represent them. Captain Fantastic takes a piece out of you. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickJul 7, 2016
Captain Fantastic isn’t only one of the year’s best movies, but one of the best cast and best acted, right down to the smaller roles. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedJul 6, 2016
Despite a frustrating fizzle of a finale, it’s a movie that enthralls the senses and engages the mind for two hours, proving no movie is too long when you’re having fun. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJul 7, 2016
Above all else, however, Mortensen gives Captain Fantastic its underlying credibility. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJul 7, 2016
It’s a testament to writer-director Matt Ross, who is probably best known as an actor on shows like Big Love and Silicon Valley, that Captain skirts cliché as well as it does; his indictments of both contemporary emptiness and misguided idealism feel earned, even if it all ties up a little too Sundance-tidy in the end. Read full review
83
The Film StageDan MeccaJan 26, 2016
Though the film struggles to wrap up the proceedings in an overlong final act, it thankfully stays true to its characters by not oversimplifying a complicated subject. Read full review
80
Total FilmNeil SmithSep 5, 2016
A road movie with heart, humour and a lead prepared to give his youthful co-stars their share of the limelight. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraAug 22, 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. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 14, 2016
As the father-in-law, Langella has one of those thankless antagonist roles — the rigid, killjoy patriarch — that older actors take for the paycheck and almost never pull off. As usual these days, he’s remarkable. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 14, 2016
Through it all, you can’t stop watching Ben, Mortensen’s character. At some point, though, you realize it’s no longer because you admire him for his ideals but want to strangle him for his undying adherence to them. Read full review
80
The GuardianBrian MoylanJul 7, 2016
Not only is it wonderful – it is heartfelt, comedic, gorgeous and just the right amount of sad. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 7, 2016
It’s left to Mr. Mortensen, who can make menace feel like vulnerability — and turn vulnerability into a confession — to keep the movie from slipping into sentimentality. He’s the most obvious reason to see it, although Mr. Ross’s insistence on taking your intelligence for granted is itself a great turn on. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Jul 6, 2016
Gorgeously photographed, and as loosey-goosey as its hero, Captain Fantastic takes some unexpected turns. Is Ben eccentric or irresponsible? Is he raising free-thinking iconoclasts — or training a new generation of Unabombers? Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 26, 2016
Ross doesn’t run from the resulting sentimentality the way so many other directors do; nor does he undercut it with irony or sarcasm as has become the regrettable tendency in independent cinema. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 28, 2016
Matt Ross’ screenplay occasionally stumbles (especially late in the proceedings) and the ending opts for a too-facile resolution but the director/writer offers moments of genuine power and pathos that make it easy to forgive the missteps. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekJul 7, 2016
So where’s the line between rigid parental standards and possible abuse? Captain Fantastic crab-walks tentatively toward that question, and even though its conclusion feels rushed, the movie still works as a portrait of an unorthodox family that’s well adjusted in its own odd way. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJul 20, 2016
For a while, the freeing experience of the clan’s nonconformity gets tamped down, and the movie appears headed toward some kind of moralized conclusion. Once back on familiar ground, however, Captain Fantastic rights itself toward as happy an ending as possible, without too much compromise. Read full review
67
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonJul 14, 2016
The dialogue is dense and quick and brainy. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 20, 2016
An earthy, funny and sometimes poignant portrait of a family that could only exist in the fantasy of the movies. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerJul 15, 2016
We’re primed to expect that the culture clash, when it comes, will be powerful and dangerous. Instead, the film suddenly backs down, and the resulting learning and growing feels like chickening out. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 8, 2016
The movie works best in the clan’s private world (even if rock climbing in the rain seems like poor parenting). But then it deflates: Frank Langella, normally a welcome presence, is clownishly directed as a mean grandfather, and the plot abandons its tensions too abruptly. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleJul 7, 2016
Captain Fantastic is a slickly made comedy with a witty, politically articulate script and some wonderful cinematography by former Jacques Audiard regular Stéphane Fontaine. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 6, 2016
To those outside his bubble, it can look at best like a form of child abuse, at worse like a cult: the nuclear family as survivalist militia. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJul 7, 2016
By the end, Ross’ initially disarming fusion of cleverness and whimsy has curdled into a dispiritingly familiar mix of sentimentality and self-satisfaction. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinJan 26, 2016
Especially refreshing, even radical, is its sympathy for characters who read for pleasure and value rigorous thought. Unfortunately, by the end, it’s gone as mushy and ragged as a homespun hemp blanket. Read full review
50
The PlaylistRuss FischerJan 26, 2016
Captain Fantastic uses bleak but gentle comedy to pinpoint the variety of ways we wrestle with grief, but the film undermines Mortensen's performance and its own thematic ambitions by presenting the character as little more than an idealized fantasy figure. Read full review
50
Screen DailyAnthony KaufmanJan 26, 2016
Like the family at its centre, Captain Fantastic is an odd bird, sometimes endearing, sometimes unbelievable. Read full review
42
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJul 7, 2016
Captain Fantastic loses its intriguing premise in a muddle of ideas about the redemptive power of family and the right of all people to live as they please. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJul 8, 2016
Captain Fantastic treats the situation (and Ben) so uncritically and so sympathetically that there is a total disconnect between what is actually onscreen and what Ross thinks is onscreen. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonJul 15, 2016
The film is premised on a radical act that it buries beneath a grueling avalanche of quirk. Read full review
More From This Movie

72 Critic Reviews

7.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL