The Fabelmans

Steven Spielberg has been directing films for so many decades that it's actually a little surprising that the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans (2022) took this long to materialize. Because of his years of success as a filmmaker, I already knew some details of Spielberg's rise to the successful director that he is today. Granted, I'm not sure how much of the family drama in The Fabelmans is a direct influence on Spielberg's life or if he manufactured it for the movie itself. Still, it is interesting to see the early budding talent presented in this movie and be able to extrapolate to movies like Jaws (1975), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and Schindler's List (1993).

Perhaps my one qualm with this movie is that it's a bit too long. I understand the desire to show the entire life of Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) to understand the context of the origins of his filmmaking passion, but there could have been much shorter ways to show these moments instead of dedicating almost the entire first act to something that was much less exciting than the rest of the film. Even if it started in the second act, The Fabelmans easily captures that struggle between family and living the life of a dedicated creative.

I really appreciated the conversation about how pursuing a creative passion can really be a challenge for an individual's personal life. Similar to how the leads in La La Land (2016) had to choose between themselves and their dreams, The Fabelmans shows how having an additional way to communicate (in this case, via filmmaking) can sometimes break through barriers and expose hard truths. The unblinking eye of the camera often sees more than we want, whether the bipolar disorder and affair of a mother or how a bully sees themselves as the hero.

A thoughtful if not slightly long autobiography of Steven Spielberg, I give The Fabelmans 4.0 stars out of 5.

This semi-autobiographical film centres around Sammy Fabelman who is transfixed by the first movie he sees at age 6 and develops a passion for film making. Other themes explored with variable depth and success include the fracturing marriage of his parents, bullying and anti-semitism at high school, young love and coming of age, and selfishness in general.

The movie is way too long and felt a little boring in the first 45minutes. It's nicely shot and well directed as you would expect, but the script is patchy and while the acting is generally excellent, the performances of Paul Dano and in particular Michelle Williams as Sammy's parents felt too affected and a little contrived - at times I felt I was watching filming on the set of a TV sitcom. I wonder still if this was deliberately instructed by Spielberg, but for me it doesn't work.

Gabriel Labelle is the best as the teenage Sammy and Judd Hirsch is superb in a cameo as Uncle Boris. John Williams as always provides a perfect score and the visuals are superb.

Overall it's worth seeing for a little insight into Spielberg's childhood but there is an unsatisfactory feel to the film as a whole. I think it could have been so much better.

There is a tendency these last years for directors to create movies about their love of movies. This movie is Spielberg's attempt, and I can confirm that it's pretty well achieved. You can feel the "true story" in the ways in which this coming-of-age story avoids melodramatic teenage cliches and tropes. The protagonist is simply a good guy. There are no real antagonists except... I guess a couple of bullies...? It's a story that simply proves Spielberg's unmatched proficiency in the language of cinema: the pacing, the directing, is very refined and well-crafted, there's a lot of sentimentality that is efficiently conveyed and the visuals are always engaging in one way or another.

Spielberg is a weird director, one that basically is simply very good at doing what he does, he talks the language of movies, Hollywood movies. He's one of those producers that turns every pop song into a hit. He doesn't have a strong sense of story, he lives and breaths in the Hollywood mainstream, and the movie portrays this very well, it shows how he is inspired by action movies, or epic movies, any entertaining story. His alter ego in the film is a very normal lead character, a very Hollywood-type of character. The best moments in the story are the interaction with his family, his complex relationship with his mother (really beautifully performed). I don't find a lot else to say, really. The only nitpick I have to offer is that the main character wears these extremely distracting brown contact lenses (I suppose to make his eyes look "genetically accurate) and I don't understand how necessary that was. The movie is simply a very conventionally well told story. Also the Lynch cameo is admittedly a moving tribute both to him and to his character of John Ford. It's slow in parts but not grating, some moments are chuckle-worthy, some are moving. It's a testament to Spielberg's insane versatility and his ability to just serve the medium of Hollywood films. I'm probably going to forget this movie in a while, but I will gladly revisit it. It's a cute movie, very cozy and feel-good, a nice Christmas family watch.

Steven Spielberg made some of the best movies ever made. Now he made one about his early life, his way of becoming a filmmaker. And this is not his best film and not his most important one, but his most personal one.

The story is fascinating, especially the way filmmaking is portrayed here is extraordinary. This is a love letter to cinema and you will be moved watching it, if you are a cineast like me.

Everybody who's dreaming about becoming a filmmaker some day has to watch this picture. It was made for you, by Mr. Spielberg with love and the hope of inspiring the next generation as he was inspired by directors from his time.

After 50 years of making movies, Steven Spielberg is still, in the 2020s, finding new muscles to work. His semi-autobiopic, The Fabelmans, is different in style, reach, and aim, than anything Spielberg has ever made. The consummate ringmaster has never helmed a film so modest. And for a director whose personal attachments are spread all over his filmography, The Fabelmans may also be his most intimate.

The story of Sam Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) is the story of Steven Spielberg, Jewish kid from Small Town USA, lover and later maker of movies. Sam shares with Steven three younger sisters, an eccentric concert pianist mother, an electrical engineer father, and a nearly identical path to movie directing. The names might be different, but obviously The Fabelmans is a dramatization of Steven Spielberg's childhood. It's certainly not our first indication of what the director thinks of such things as his parents' divorce, his interpersonal relationships with his family, or the images, moments, and memories that inspired him to make movies. Spielberg has brilliantly disguised these themes within his genre films; in alien invasion movies, dinosaur pictures, science fiction noirs, and family fantasy adventures. But with The Fabelmans, here comes the full reveal. It is a movie directly about family. His family. One must assume The Fabelmans is Steven Spielberg's last word on the subjects that have bewitched him throughout his career.

The Fabelmans is kitchen sink drama all the way; no bells, no whistles, no magic realism or distracting style. In other words, no distance from these characters. The ones we have here are all quite well-realized. Paul Dano as Burt, the Fableman patriarch, is a sweetheart; surprisingly real despite an affected subservient speech pattern. Dano's character could have been an embarrassing caricature of the "no fun, get a job" father, but he comes out well-intentioned and completely three dimensional in a thankless role. Michelle Williams has the showier job playing mother Mitzy. She doesn't fumble the challenge, and in fact carves out a memorable personality from the more artistically inclined of Sam's parents. In the middle is Gabriel LaBelle, the latest model of the square-jawed, brown-eyed, young male muse that Spielberg has been searching for for decades now. Like Ansel Elgort, Tye Sheridan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeremy Irvine, and Shia LaBeouf before him (the man has a type), he's good enough. LaBelle is a likeable personality, a truly important metric for a performance like this, and he anchors the film admirably. Will it be that elusive star-making performance Spielberg has clearly been wanting from one of his young proteges? No. But it's a nice one.

A few supporting players stop in for extended cameos. Judd Hirsh's quick turn as Uncle Boris may very well earn him an Oscar nomination. Hirsch has the classic showpiece monologue-two of them to be exact-and the sort of built-up respect needed for such a role. Young Chloe East on the other hand is a real discovery as Sam's high school girlfriend. Just when the movie needs a little energy, she comes in with the good stuff. Her's is a bright and living performance that never feels put on. Seth Rogan is there as well. A risky, maybe inspired casting choice, he's not bad.

The Fabelmans is practically structureless, even at times aimless. There is no agreed-upon thesis that the movie is working toward, nor is there a feeling Spielberg is coaxing us into experiencing. As a cinematic project, it does not play to its director's strengths whatsoever. But we've seen the resiliency of Steven Spielberg before. Desert animal he truly is; able to adapt to changing landscapes and external challenges. By his standards, this is a tiny movie. Not the first quiet, artistic coming-of-age movie (in one of the movie's few missteps, it trots out a clichéd bullying subplot that drags the quality of the production way down), but in experienced, versatile hands, one of the very best.

The Fabelmans certainly won't blow the doors off the box office, and for many, its sincere love for the craft of filmmaking will go completely unregistered. That narrow appeal, however, is precisely why The Fabelmans is destined to become a very special movie for people like me. I had my own 'Greatest Show on Earth' experience at six years old, when I saw Sam Raimi's Spider-man in one of the great big theaters where my aunt lived. Later, after I had discovered more of my favorites, developed a taste for the movies, I made my own. My cousins starred in one Jurassic Park rip-off as a team of scientists pursued by dragons in Shanghai. I became a film snob in college, and made short films with the guiding help of a professor who thought I had potential. I got a job as a documentarian and later directed a commercial or two of my own. All the while, I had my own family, who happen to be a lot like The Fabelmans, there to support and sometimes to trivialize, but whom I love with everything I have. Oh, it is sappy to talk about how personal The Fabelmans feels to me. I'm sure mine will not be the only review emphasizing how relatable this film is to someone with the artistic itch. But I assume I'm much like Sam Fabelman, and Steven Spielberg too, when I say that movies are my therapy. Our careers may never compare, but at least we'll share that.

Mazal Tov.

87/100.