Captain Fantastic

Stories about children being raised outside mainstream society pop up every now and then. In the majority of cases there is a questioning over whether or not what is happening in these places is abusive to the kids. Society tends to look down on them because they happen to take place in far right political communities. Writer/director Matt Ross takes this idea to the other end of the political spectrum to see if we'd be okay with kids growing up in a super intellectual anti-capitalist camp in the woods.

Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) raises his five kids in the woods, teaching them how to survive, but at the same time giving them the education of university students. After discovering that his wife, who had been hospitalised with bipolar disorder, has killed herself, he decides to take his kids to the funeral so that they can act on her final wishes. While the children are thrust into a world they don't fully understand, Ben clashes with his wife's father Jack (Frank Langella) about the right way to raise his kids.

Captain Fantastic is a strange movie to watch. While it has an overall positive and feel good message about doing things your own way, it feels a bit off, almost as if it is not as politicised as it already is (or should be). Probably the best thing about it is the casting. Both Viggo Mortensen and Frank Langella are perfectly cast. Mortensen is the kind of person who you could readily believe that he would be able to survive without modern society, but that probably has to do with the fact that he is always typecast in these type of roles. George MacKay, who plays Ben's oldest child Bodevan, is amazing as the wide eyed teen who has only had small glimpses of the outside world.

I suppose that the biggest fault of the movie is that the main character isn't particularly endearing. He barely shows any emotion until the final moments of the film. This lack of endearment makes the film a bit of struggle because apart from the children, no characters have any redeemable points. The film is a tad laborious for the fact that it doesn't really have enough to say about the world. It only exists because it was made.

Perhaps Matt Ross, who is better known for his roles in American Psycho, Face/Off and, more recently, Silicon Valley, should stick to acting. While this isn't his first hand at directing, it's not a very good result. Reasons to see this are limited to performances from Viggo Mortensen and George MacKay, but that's about it.

Pride

It's been a long time since I've seen an ensemble piece with a perfect cast, but that's exactly what I found in Matthew Warchus's fantastically enjoyable LGBT feature Pride.

During the height of Margaret Thatcher's term and the 1984 Miner's strike, Mark (Ben Schnetzer) and his friends at the 'Gay's the Word' bookshop recognise similarities in their struggle for LGBT rights and the struggle of the Miners, so they decide to form a fund-raising group, Lesbians & Gays Support Miners (LGSM). After contacting various Miner's groups with little success, LGSM decides to work directly with a Welsh mining town, with a council representative, Dai (Paddy Considine) coming up to meet them in London with plenty of enthusiasm.

When the group drive down to the town in South Wales, they are met by sceptical residents that are driven by homophobic preconceptions. Though soon enough - with the support of local mother Sian (Jessica Gunning), and council members Hefina (Imelda Staunton) & Cliff (Bill Nighy) - the majority of the town show their support. It's really quite a wonderful story.

Based on true events, Pride manages to be both wonderfully amusing and sincerely real at the same time, but not in a particularly confronting manner. It's the British equivalent of Priscilla, just not quite as flamboyant. At times it does become overly-sentimental, but these moments are few and far between, and are outnumbered by the many great scenes that tell this enthralling story. Though the true reason that it manages to come to fruition so effortlessly on screen, lies in the superb performances from, not just a few, but all the cast.

Pride has at least twelve leading roles, as well as numerous supporting characters, and it's difficult to find a fault in any of them. There are definitely some standouts, namely the hilarious Imelda Staunton (she is one of my favourite, and yet quite underrated British actors), the young George MacKay as Joe, Bill Nighy (because he's Bill Nighy), and Dominic West as Jonathan, in possibly his best role since The Wire. But overall, this is a real team effort and a fantastic job by casting. It's great to see a good ensemble piece and the story of LGSM just screams for a united cast with plenty of shared screen time. 

 

Pride is not only heartwarming, but it's enourmously funny, and manages to be so without being condescending or degrading...apart from perhaps to homophobes. It's an absolute joy to behold.