7 Thursday, July 14, 2016 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS ‘Captain Fantastic’ an endearing look at life FILM REVIEW Sundance film takes a look at what it means to be a parent By DANNY HENSEL Daily Arts Writer Say what you will about the hyper-commercialization of film, Marxist cinema is still alive — at least in a limited way, living as it would in an American capitalist society: on the fringes. In “Captain Fantastic,” a family that ascribes to these same values also finds itself removed, by choice, from the grasps of mainstream society, settled in rural Washington. At the head of the Cash family is Ben (Viggo Mortensen, “A History of Violence”), a man who, with his wife, has propped up a remote settlement to teach their children about life in a way a standardized education could not. They exercise daily, hunt for their own food and read constantly. The Cash family has established an intellectual utopia to create “philosopher kings” of their children — in which the word “interesting” is banned — anyone who expresses an opinion is invited to explain it to open ears and celebrations of Christmas are left by the wayside in favor of Noam Chomsky Day, to honor the beloved linguist. When Ben’s wife dies, the dynamics of the family change considerably, forced to enter and confront American society to attend her funeral. This proves quite the challenge for the Cashes, who pride themselves on their intellectual and physical strength. As Bodevan (George MacKay, “Pride”), the oldest child, cries in frustration to his father, “Unless it comes out of a book, I don’t know anything!” Bodevan, or Bodie for short, may be able to parse between “Trotskyite” and “Trotskyist” while declaring himself as a Maoist, but he is far from competent at talking to girls. The five other children, whose names—Kielyr, Vespyr, Rellian, Zaja and Nai—are meant to signify their unending uniqueness in the world, also struggle to adapt to their surroundings. Only Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton, “Strangerland”), a rebellious tween, expresses anger at his father for bringing the family out to the western wilderness. “Captain Fantastic” is, above all, a master class in emotions, a study of how actors can remain human even when their characters are far from relatable. Individuals who live in the forest and are taught to hate organized religion, schools, medicine — really anything at all — are few and far between, yet the six children are so believable at their core, so dedicated to their father’s teachings that it’s impossible not to sympathize with them when their grandfather threatens to take custody. Ben is a complex and rather compelling character by default, but Mortensen brings a dedication and heightened intellect to the role that flashes when he speaks his rather non-flashy dialogue. Frank Langella (“Frost/ Nixon”) plays Ben’s father-in-law with gravitas, bringing a quiet yet looming and brooding presence to the film’s chief antagonist. Kathryn Hahn (“The Visit”) and Steve Zahn (“Dallas Buyers Club”) blend in perfectly as supposedly “good” and “responsible” parents who have subscribed to the American consumerist parenting guide en masse that the Cash family so despises. Though, the film can stumble when it succumbs to, instead of subverting, easy choices. Bodie’s cultural blank spots are taken to their logical extreme — literally being unable to speak to a girl when he sees her or, later, proposing to wed a girl after meeting her that day. He may have only read books, but surely they had protagonists wait before proposing marriage. The symbolism is also a bit too pronounced. The family only listens to classical music and the film dispels with a typical film score for something more rustic, so, of course, “My Heart Will Go On” from “Titanic” blares through the speakers in a grocery store. The family drives around in a converted school bus, painted green and retrofitted like an RV, a clear allusion to the family’s unorthodox translations of what happens in a typical American household and life. Yet, ultimately, the film is a success because it’s unafraid to explore and often defend the family’s experimental living. Writer and Director Matt Ross (“28 Hotel Rooms”) clearly did his research, diving into the worlds of Noam Chomsky and the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, whose theory of over-identification as a strategy to upend societal norms clearly informed the family’s method of scaring cops away from arresting Ben. The line is repeated continuously throughout, but it’s ultimately true: “We’re defined by our actions, not our words.” We may criticize our society to no end, but Ross has actually shown us what we could be. BLEECKER STREET When you pull up to the function all fitted ‘Night Of’ dread and misfortune By ALEX INTNER Summer Managing Arts Editor If you look at HBO’s drama offerings beyond the massive hit that is “Game of Thrones,” you’ll find a pretty bar- ren cabinet. While “The Leftovers” has criti- cal acclaim, it’s ratings are not near- ly strong enough to anchor any- thing on its own. The upcom- ing “Westworld” has been in a tumultuous development and production cycle for years now — either a sign of creative turmoil or a struggle to find what they want the show to be. And, most embarrassingly, HBO rolled back its season two renewal of “Vinyl” after realizing the massive cre- ative revamp the drama would need wasn’t worth their resourc- es. So, this year, they were forced to give their summer drama slot to a smaller miniseries that has also been in development for a while (originally intended to be a vehicle for the late, great James Gandolfini, “The Sopranos”, who retains a posthumous executive producer credit), a show that wouldn’t usually be thought of as a network anchor. The move seems to have paid off from a business perspective, as the drama premiered to significantly higher ratings than last year’s “Show Me a Hero.” Creatively speaking, “The Night Of” is HBO’s best series premiere since “Hero,” as its slow build of a story hooks you in a slow and painful manner. “The Night Of” ’s premiere follows a night gone horribly wrong. While Nasir (Riz Ahmed, “Nightcrawler”) is on the way to a party in his father’s cab, Andrea (Sofia Black D’Elia, MTV’s adap- tation of “Skins”) gets in. She leads him on an adventure across town before bringing him home for an evening of drugs and sex. However, when he wakes up in the kitchen, he walks over to the bedroom to find her brutally stabbed to death and blood every- where. He runs, but is caught by the police for an unrelated crime. Brought to the station, the police find the murder weapon on his body and proceeds to question him about the crime (which he has no memory of), at least until lawyer Jack Stone (John Turtur- ro, “The Big Lebowski”, in a role originally planned for Gandol- fini) shows up and starts to help Nasir. The episode unfolds this story methodically across its hour- plus runtime. It takes nearly a half-hour for Nasir’s full encoun- ter with Andrea to play out. As it continues, the sense of dread builds. The show is completely aware you know something bad is going to happen to them, and it uses that to build a palpable sense of tension. As Nasir gets arrested for a completely different act, you know they’re going to figure out he was at the scene of the mur- der (in fact, the cops who arrest him are called to the scene while he’s in the car and bring him to sit in the car outside of the build- ing he just left). It plays with your knowledge of what happened and made me physically uncom- fortable in the best way possible. By the end of the first episode, we have no idea where this story is going. Heck, we don’t even know if this is a case of mistaken identity or if Nasir committed the murder when his memory falters. In this case, we’re as in the dark as the main character, and it’s going to be exciting to see how the series deliberately unravels its story. While a single minise- ries is not enough to come close to securing HBO’s drama future, “The Night Of” gives hope that the pipeline might not be as bar- ren as reported. A The Night Of Miniseries Premiere Sundays at 10 p.m. HBO A- Captain Fantastic Bleecker Street State Theatre on July 22 Its slow build of a story hooks you TV REVIEW