“You," he said, "are a terribly real thing
in a terribly false world, and that, I believe, is why you are in so much
pain.” –Emilie Autumn
If you’re local-ish, head down to the quirky delight that is Albany, Oregon’s Pix Theatre for a showing of Captain Fantastic, and see what good movies are made of.
There’s lots of types of
good movies. Some tell a tiny story with
gem-like detail. Some create a wormhole
for your mind to escape life for a couple of hours. And brilliant ones like Captain Fantastic let
you live deeply in another life, which might not look anything like yours on
the surface but has all the essential ingredients of not just a good story but
a real life: realism in emotion,
sometimes brutal honesty, true in-the-moment ecstatic joy and sorry and
confusion and clear purpose and wisdom and big sticky messes. “Oh, this life of mud and miracles”, sings Richard
Bucknard. “It’s just the prettiest
little burden, isn’t it.”
There’s plenty of all of this bounty in one
two hour movie about a family on the outside.
Cultures clash, there is dancing and love and hating and death and joy. And there are ideals that cannot be
manifested without smashing into opposing ideals. It’s about family, and worlds we wish to
create and the cost of being a creator.
It’s simply the closest capture to how things really are, even when it is
pushing an extended metaphor as an explanation.
Go see it.
Let it stir up some values checks for you. Let it remind you of our
common need and fear of connections.
Playing this week at the Pix in Albany.
