Out now on digital, The Fabelmans will give you an inside look at the childhood of Steven Spielberg, and true events that turned him into the filmmaker and man he is today. While the running time seems daunting to the average movie-goer, for those of us who have been watching his films since childhood, it is hard not to support his efforts to pour his heart out for the world to see. With a few short weeks away from a physical release, wait to pick this one up then, it's worth adding to your Spielberg collection.
“Rediscover the magic of movies in Steven Spielberg’s coming-of-age story about a young man’s love of film and the power it has to reveal the truth in ourselves and others.”
Steven Spielberg is no stranger when it comes to coming-of-age films, often inserting aspects of his own childhood into the stories, surely a very cathartic method of coming to terms with some of those aspects. Although a multi-million dollar film is in no way cheaper than therapy, the best thing to come from these films is to speak to others that may have had certain trauma in their own childhood. In addition, it gives us a glimpse into the life of the filmmaker, the things that trouble him, amaze him, and in a sense, makes the audience understand and feel closer to him.
The Fabelmans follows the Fabelman family, spanning from the 1950s-1960s, as they move around the country for the father, Burt Fabelman’s (Paul Dano) job, and the pressures, interior and exterior, that are put upon the family during a post-World War II era. Michelle Williams plays the mother, Mitzi, whose imaginative and carefree personality is the polar opposite of her husband, seeming to be constantly drifting away, perhaps not by choice, from her family. During the tumultuous ups and downs in their lives, the son, Sammy played by Mateo Zoryan as the younger version, then Gabriel LaBelle as the older, finds a love for cinema when he sees The Greatest Show on Earth in theaters, with one scene scaring him so badly he discovers an unorthodox method for overcoming his fears: to re-create the sequence himself on camera. Just as his character does in the film, Spielberg has used his career for unpacking his emotional traumas for the entire world to see, an effort to control things that are uncontrollable.
With the film running over two and a half hours, there is a lot of content, both of the family dynamic itself, as well as Sammy’s coming-of-age in his teen years as he deals with the thing he loved the most being responsible for uncovering a dark family secret, as well as outside prejudices of his Jewish background. Although I was never actively bored through any of the long runtime, there were clear sequences that could have been cut for pacing, and while it’s difficult to dictate to someone pouring their heart and soul out on screen that parts of their life need to be omitted, for pacing sake, some of it should have been. Despite this, after my viewing, reading about how much of it truly did happen to Spielberg, it’s hard to say that these things are issues with the film. Armed with that knowledge may help for sequences that may seem insignificant.
By far the best thing about the film are the performances. Paul Dano, despite still looking like a teenager himself, transforms himself into the reserved and brilliant character that despite wanting to fight tooth and nail to save his marriage, simply can’t comprehend how to. Michelle Williams may be one of the best parts, equally as brilliant, a musician who always has something pleasant and uplifting to say, lighthearted but harboring a deep depression that she struggles to hide daily. Gabriel LaBelle has one or two moments in the film that simply ‘wow’ you, that make you realize that this kid could go places.
Spielberg’s themes and styles are more prevalent in this film than probably any of the others in his career. It’s often said that he puts a little bit of himself in all the child characters in his films, but in this one he pours himself into the story. While that could not be of interest to the average viewer, for those of us who’ve been watching his films since we were children ourselves, it’s a special connection to him that transcends a regular movie-going experience. It may not work totally as a basic film in some senses, but given the emotional connection and investment, it’s one that will stand out in his career.
We were given a digital code to review this film, which is now available to purchase digitally. The physical copy comes out on 2/14/23 on both Blu-ray and 4k UHD, that will contain several featurettes, with superior video and audio, something that cannot be accurately reviewed based on internet connections. As usual while streaming this on digital movie services, while trying to review this, I was interrupted several times with some kind of buffering, despite having a 1 Gigabyte connection. I highly recommend waiting until the physical copy is released to ensure the most reliable and highest quality viewing of the film possible.
