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.

Fantastic, indeed.

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.

'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.