The Fabelmans: Spielberg Strikes Again!

Steven Spielberg is a god, plain and simple. He's made so many classics: Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the list goes on. Whenever Jurassic Park or Jaws is on TV, I feel a moral obligation to watch them. Ever since I was little, I've loved the guy. When I was in elementary school, I had to do a biography on a famous person that I really like. Guess who I chose? We had to create a puppet and talk about that person's life. My grandpa and I made a Steven Spielberg head and, needless to say, I did really well. When a new movie of his is announced, I get pretty excited. I was bummed last year that I never got to see his take on West Side Story. When I heard that his next project was going to based on his childhood, I was thrilled. In addition to that, Spielberg was helping to write the movie (which is something he rarely does). All of these things were lining up to be a home-run. Is it? Well that's what I'm here to tell you.

The Fabelmans is directed by God himself, Steven Spielberg, and stars Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Julia Butters, and Keely Karsten. The story is a loose adaptation of Spielberg's childhood and follows Sammy Fabelman (LaBelle & Mateo Zoryan), a young boy who dreams of becoming a filmmaker. On his journey he has to deal with many things in his life, including a pretty big family secret. With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

This movie is just absolutely fantastic in every way. It felt like a long therapy session for Spielberg. He poured his entire soul into this film and it shows. When I was doing the project on him, I read a book about his life. Several things from his youth are in this movie: His parents divorce, never fitting in, and the horrible anti-Semitism he faced in school. It's an extremely personal movie for him. What makes this movie work are the performances. LaBelle did an awesome job as Sammy. He knows that he's destined to make movies from a young age. It's an escape for him and he commits to them 100%. LaBelle did a really good job displaying this. There's a sequence where he's directing a World War II movie with his friends, the day after he finds out very upsetting about his family (I won't spoil it) and he pulls one of the kids aside. He starts breaking down how the character should be feeling and his eyes start to tear up. Sammy is really getting into. The actor starts to well up and understands what he has to do, not really understanding why his director was starting to get upset. The description I just gave doesn't do the scene justice, but it really sold me on LaBelle on an actor. There are scenes towards the end where he looks exactly like a young Spielberg. It's a little frightening. Michelle Williams crushes it as Sammy's mom, Mitzi. She's the one that gets him to start making movies and really supports his goals. There's one sequence where she is watching something that Sammy filmed and the camera is zooming in on her face. This is really hard to describe because it's a pretty important part of the movie but it really shows how great an actress Williams is in the film. As she's realizing what she's seeing, her face slowly goes from a neutral expression to a look of horror. She's like a geyser slowly getting ready to erupt. It's such a strong performance. Paul Dano also does a spectacular job as Sammy's dad, Burt. Unlike Mitzi, he sees his son's filmmaking as more of a hobby than a viable future. That doesn't mean he's not supportive of Sammy though. It sets up an interesting dynamic between the two of them that could've fallen into cliche but never did. In one scene Mitzi says it best, "In this family, it's the scientists versus the artists. Sammy's on my side, he takes after me." What I really loved about this movie was how it's a love letter to cinema. The opening scene does a great job of showing this when Sammy goes to the movies for the first time with his parents. It perfectly captures the awe and wonder of going to the theater. The lights go down, the screen lights up, and you're transported to a different world for an hour or two. For Sammy, nothing else matters and he's transfixed to what he sees on the screen. After it's over, he's overwhelmed in a way. It's such a personal moment in the film that echoed how I feel about going to watch movies. For that reason alone, I loved The Fabelmans. Of course the beautiful cinematography helps, too. There are many images that stuck with me, like little Sammy projecting one of his movies onto his hands. It's always great to hear John Williams scoring a film, too (I'm still devastated that the new Indiana Jones is going to be the last time we hear his genius).

I don't have a ton of issues with this movie. It is pretty lengthy and some scenes tend to drag on a bit, but it never really bothered me. Some portions of the movie get a little preachy, but Spielberg has fully earned that. There were also some characters that I wished we had spent a little more time with because they have an effect on the main characters later on in the film (no spoilers). Other than that, it's kinda hard to find anymore flaws here.

The Fabelmans is a wonderful movie. Spielberg poured his heart into it, the performances are excellent across the board, it's a great loveletter to movies, the music is great and the cinematography is gorgeous. Yes, it's a little long, some parts tend to drag on a bit and are a little preachy, and there are some characters I wanted more of, but that doesn't take away from how great this movie is. I really want to know how much of this movie actually happened to Spielberg as a kid. Please go see this in the theater if you get the chance. If I were to rate it, I'd give The Fabelmans a 9/10.