Deep, rich, thoughtful and vastly entertaining: Matt Ross' captivating CAPTAIN FANTASTIC

Along with Anne Fontaine's The Innocents, the new film -- CAPTAIN FANTASTIC -- from actor/writer/director Matt Ross -- looks to be a shoo-in for one of 2016's best movies. Mr. Ross graced us back in 2012 with the lovely little indie 28 Hotel Rooms, so his newest work does not come out of nowhere, as they say. But as charming and real and special was the "Hotel Rooms" debut, his new film seems light years beyond it.

This is one of those big-themed movies that manages to deliver the goods on almost every front: ideas, dialog, performances -- they're all first-rate. If Mr. Ross' visual sense as a filmmaker still has a way to go, that's just fine: TrustMovies will take intelligent ideas over flashy artistry any day. Not that Ross (shown at left) doesn't deliver some of the latter, as well. Take his opening moments, for example. It's been a long while since any filmmaker startled an audience this much by tossing us in media res quite so drastically. At the critics' screening I attended the fellow to my left screamed aloud, as though there was clearly something wrong here and that the theater had not begun the film properly. (This is not unheard of: I've already been to one press screening down here in Florida where we had visuals and no sound, and another in which we had sound but no visuals. And once, at a public screening yet, the film remained noticeably out of focus for its entire running time.)

But, no. It was soon clear that Ross had us right where he wanted us. And then the film's title appeared on the screen, and we knew were exactly where we should be in this unusual work. That initial scene, taking place in the middle of what looks like a forest in the Pacific Northwest, involves a father (Viggo Mortensen, shown above, right, and below, center) and his six children faring for themselves -- and I mean really roughing it -- in terms of everything from housing to hunting for food and insuring clean and accessible water.

This is no summer camping trip. The family has been in this situation for some years, except that now, its mom is in the hospital, and dad has to do all the parenting, such as it is. Yet these are highly skilled children. It almost seems as if the family is preparing for some sort of post-apocalyptic living. But, no. Dad and Mom had simply given up on Capitalism and its increasingly meagre results and so have been teaching their kids to live "off the grid."

An event soon occurs that forces the family to rejoin the "normal" world, at least partially and for a time, and it is from there that Ross' film leaps off into a wonderful, problemed, difficult, disturbing, rich and mysterious look at what "good parenting" might mean in our ever more trying times.

To his credit as writer and director, the filmmaker does not turn anyone here into an outright hero or villain. Even grandpa (another very good turn by Frank Langella, above, left), who initially seems like an ornery creep, turns out to be more nuanced and understandable that we might have imagined. (The wonderful Ann Dowd is grandma.) Also in the cast are the always-fine Kathryn Hahn and Steve Zahn, who play our hero's sister and brother-in-law.

Sure, we're meant to be on Dad's side in all this (even though it is soon apparent that his choices for his kids may not always be the right ones), and Mortensen does his usual terrific job in a role that calls for him to go too far and then have to face the consequences of his "journey." This actor -- whose career has encompassed everything from little-seen indies (The Reflecting Skin) to little-known foreign head-scratchers (Gospel According the Harry) to ever-popular art-mainstream movies (A Walk on the Moon) to international blockbusters (that Lord of the Rings trilogy) -- is always good. You can count of him for reliability, reality, depth, versatility, and of course that gorgeous face and breath-taking body (all of which we view here, including one sustained full-frontal shot). The actor even got an Oscar nod back in 2008 for Eastern Promises; maybe 2016 will be his year to win.

What makes the movie work especially well are the excellent performances given by the six children on view, all of whom, as characters, have been home-schooled, and damned well, by their parents. The kids include a swell mix that ranges from the oldest boy, now of college age -- a great job by that terrific Britisher George MacKay (above, left) -- to one of the young girls (Shree Crooks, at right, below), who can quote you our Constitution and know exactly what she's talking about, as well as understanding the importance of a fellow like Noam Chomsky.

One of the film's loveliest scenes involves a mother and daughter (Erin Moriarty and Missi Pyle, below, respectively, left and right) that the family meets on the road and who discover the joys and oddities of the McKay character's personality.

The kids are amazing (both their characters and their performances). They can scale the side of sheer cliff and hunt their own prey, as well as discuss the likes of Nabokov's Lolita. While they've been given a fine education in so many ways, they have not, it soon becomes clear, been socialized enough to mix in properly with the world as we know it.

How all this resolves (and it does not, thankfully, do so in any pre-formatted fashion) is where Mr Ross goes with his movie, which is part road trip, part coming-of-age tale, and part coming-to-terms with compromise while caring for one's children. The trip is a stunning one. You may disagree with some of the characters and their choices now and again, but you will not easily -- nor should you -- forget their journey.

Captain Fantastic, from Bleecker Street and running just under two hours, after opening in New York, and L.A. two weeks back, opens today, Friday, July 22, here in South Florida at the Cinemark Palace 20 in Boca Raton and Cobb's Downtown at the Mall Gardens Palm 16 in Palm Beach Gardens. This amazing movie is now playing all across the country, and you can click here to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters. There'll likely be one near you.

Gaye Kirschenbaum's "mom outreach" movie opens in Florida: LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER!

Can you think of anyone in your own generation who doesn't (or didn't) have major problems reaching their parents on the important levels? Sure, there are exceptions, but almost everyone I know (including me) fills this bill. Yet here comes a middle-aged woman -- documentarian Gayle Kirschenbaum -- who determines to bridge the generation gap and actually does it, via the film under consideration here: LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER!  The result is a small movie miracle that, while providing family history, connections, problems and pain, shows us finally how connection can be made.

Ms Kirschenbaum, shown above -- and, yes, she's Jewish, so the "nose" problem (mom wants her to have it "fixed") crops up early on and never goes away -- seems to me to be a smart, attractive and determined woman who uses her old family "film footage" to give us much of the story of this immigrant Polish/Ukraine family and how it succeeded over generations here in the USA. At the very beginning of her movie Kirschenbaum tells us via an introductory crawl: "Most of this footage was taken for home video purposes and was never intended for an audience. Nevertheless, what follows is a story I was driven to tell."

Fair enough. What follows is a remarkably balanced -- between mother and daughter --  account of older lives lived in emotional shadow (that's mom, above), with the younger versions, thanks to everything from psychology to greater social interaction and freedom for children, coming into the light, and then helping to dispense that light onto its forebears.

Beginning with the idea that she was somehow born into the wrong family (don't many of us hold this same notion?), the filmmaker shows us her parents and grandparents (the latter, just above) and gives us enough history so that we can appreciate their struggles, wins and losses. Gayle's mother, especially, seems such a typical product of her constricted era, that when we hear Gayle's thoughts about her own upbringing, we can only cringe and mostly identify.

Mom, of course, doesn't want to know from any of this. As she is dragged from visual and verbal trips down memory lane into various kinds of therapy/counseling, her response to any question is usually "I don't know" or "I don't remember." For awhile, at least. The counselors are kind but probing, and her daughter is, too. And even as we viewers begin to piece together the past and how it has led to this present, so, slowly, does mom.

The journey was certainly longer and more fraught than the 84-minute movie that condenses it, but Kirschenbaum has done an excellent job of editing (along with Alex Keipper) her film and photographs and history into an unfurling whole. Consequently we see mom beginning to take in the idea that she was a product of her own family and its problems, just as her daughter was a generation later.

The movie is often amusing, too. Mom and daughter both thankfully manage to keep their sense of humor, which they need to get through all this. Because Kirschenbaum is a documentary filmmaker, she gets to travel a lot, and so, as the movie progresses, she takes mom with her. (That's the pair in Israel, below.)

We learn something of Kirschenbaum's own history and character, too: Avoiding intimacy, her major relationship seems to be with her pet dog. Initially, the film is filled with ideas of guilt and recrimination and attempts at forgiveness. Slowly, though, it turns into an ongoing journey of discovery on both sides of the generation gap, of seeing the past in a different light, and of beginning to experience life through another's eyes for a change.

That mom can finally allow herself to do this is pretty exceptional, I think. Initially she comes across as a something of a self-righteous monster; by film's end, she's exposed as the vulnerable woman who coped with life as best she could and is now learning new ways to cope more healthily.

Moms, grandmas and grandkids should flock to this movie -- hell, dads and sons ought to, as well, but, as usual, it will be harder to get the guys there (tell 'em it's an action movie!). Once word-of-mouth gets out, theaters will fill.

Look at Us Now, Mother, a small, honest film that achieves exactly what it sets out to do, opens this Friday, March 25, here in South Florida in Boca Raton (where Gayle's mom actually lives!) at the Regal Shadowood and the Living Room Theaters; in Delray Beach at The Movies of Delray; and at The Last Picture Show in Tamarac. Come April 8, it will open in New York City (at the Village East Cinema) and in Los Angeles at
Laemmle's Monica Film Center and Town Center 5. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Ira Sachs scores again--with the help of Lithgow and Molina--in his best yet, LOVE IS STRANGE

It's funny but appropriate, I think, that Ira Sachs, the slow-burning wunderkind of gay cinema, should have made two so fine and startlingly different recent films -- in terms of style and content -- as his earlier Keep the Lights On (which told the story of two young, gay men unable to commit) and his new one, LOVE IS STRANGE, which opens theatrically this Friday and tells of two gay seniors for whom commitment was and is a piece of cake (it's life in New York City that's so fucking difficult).

Ms Sachs, whose work grows richer, deeper, broader and more inclusive with each new film, is still working in "pieces." This is evidently a hallmark of his style: selecting those particular fraught moments that become entire scenes in order to show us how life and people work. These are not the "expected" nor typical moments and scenes, either. But under Sachs' guidance, they become hallmarks. From The Delta through 40 Shades of Blue and Married Life, he has continued to do this. But of late, he is doing it in a way that I believe is reaching many more viewers than his first two full-length films. This is because he is finding of late those moments that will ring both true and meaningful for a wider audience, no matter who his characters be -- gay, straight, old, young -- that are experiencing these moments.

Love is Strange finds a couple in its senior years -- John Lithgow (playing Ben, below) and Alfred Molina (in the role of George, above), each man achieving a best-yet performance -- finally able to legally marry after living together for literally decades. The irony here is that one of the two earns his living as a teacher in a Catholic school, at which his homosexuality has gone "unmentioned" for years. Now that he has "outted" himself by marrying, the Church says he must be fired.

Seniors (anyone, actually) living close-to-the-vest financially will understand the sudden predicament in which the couple finds itself. The two cannot afford any longer to live in their apartment -- the legal ins-and-outs of all this is pretty well handled by Sachs without making more of it than the movie's 94-minute running time will accommodate -- and so they find themselves separated and living with relatives/friends for a time.

It is one thing to attend the wedding and propose a warm and meaningful toast to the pair. But it's quite another to have one of the two men living with you, as Ben's nearest family -- husband (Darren E. Burrows, above, center, in white), wife (Marisa Tomei, below) and teenage son (Charlie Tahan, at bottom, with Molina) soon discover.

George is taken in by good friends who are also much younger (and of course, wilder), so the living situation is pretty crummy there, too. Yet Sachs and his co-writer, Mauricio Zacharias, are even-handed in their portrayals. There are no villains here, only people trying to manage their lives while trying to do what is "right" for all concerned.

Ben has lived much of his life as a painter, a good one, but perhaps not the great one he would have liked to have been. Still his work is rather lovely, and he continues to strive, while George now offers piano lessons to children whose parents can afford the fee.

We see all this in fairly quick takes, yet as the movie unfurls, these two men become major figures. We're with them totally, on a day-to-day, as well as a deeply emotional level because Sachs and Zacharias have chosen so wisely what to show us, in a manner that dodges cliche.

This is nowhere more apparent than in the film's closing scenes, so quietly and beautifully rendered that they may stick with you forever. Rather than going after the typical, tear-jerking moments, the filmmakers instead step back. Not a mile, mind you, just a few feet. But enough to show us what has happened from an unexpected viewpoint that allows us to feel and identify with someone else, while keeping in mind our two heroes. The effect is extraordinary, one of the most moving of the movie year.

Love Is Strange opens this coming Friday, August 22, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center, the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the Chelsea Cinema 9; in Los Angeles look for it at The Landmark and the Hollywood Arclight 15. In the weeks and months to come, the film will open across the country. To see all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed, click here and scroll down.

Saffron Cassaday's CYBER SENIORS: de-gapping the generations, as oldsters learn email & Skype!

This is a documentary that needs to be seen -- primarily, I think, by the very population that it covers so interestingly: those senior citizens, many of whom have not, so far, embraced their computers and the internet and learned of all that these have to offer them. CYBER-SENIORS, the film by Saffron Cassaday, shows us how seniors in various places (in Canada, I think) have been taught by a host of youngsters who of course know and use email, the internet, Skype and what have you, and so are able to school their elders regarding how to do the same thing. In the process, the generations get to know each other and profit from the experience. The seniors no doubt profit a little more, but the kids, at least, discover that us elderly are not some alien race whose sell-by date has long expired.

Ms Cassaday, the young director of the film (shown at left), has brought together a fun group of the old and the young and watched them bounce off each other. The old folk do learn, perhaps not quite as quickly and pain-free as shown here (the film tries to remain upbeat, even concerning the cancers that one of the elderly already has, and one of the youngsters acquires along the way), but there is no denying the good results that we (and they) see happening right in front of us. The kids look like high school and college level, while the seniors are anywhere from their 70s into their 90s. Depending on their remaining abilities, it's amazing what some of these people can do.

Watching them get involved with each other is often bracing and sometimes joyous. Funny, too: "Do you like seniors more or less than before?" the young man, above, is asked. "It's like anything else," he answers. "You get used to them. And they're kinda cute."

Ms Cassaday makes certain we learn at least some of the back-story of these elderly, which helps involve us. And yes, in addtion to being fun, they can be petty and silly and jealous and what have you, just like everyone else -- as we see with one woman, below, who's rather desperately hoping that her YouTube video wins the prize.

I actually wish that Ms Cassaday had not spent what seems like the final half of her film on these rather silly YouTube videos, getting her seniors involved in each making his or her own. Sure, it seems to provide some motivation for our gang, but it also appears to be turning the little group into past-their-prime teens who live for how many "clicks" they can get. I'm with the woman who says she doesn't like Facebook. You go, girl!

Cyber-Seniors -- from Area 23a and running 75 minutes -- begins its theatrical run in Los Angeles, this Friday, May 9, at Laemmle's Music Hall 3, and then hits New York City the following Friday, May 16, at our Cinema Village. Click here to see further upcoming playdates.