The Fabelmans review: One of Steven Spielberg’s best movies tells his own story

Polygon had a team at the Toronto International Film Festival 2022, covering the dramas, horrors, and action films that will dominate our cinematic conversations as we enter awards season. This review was published in conjunction with the film’s TIFF premiere.

In an age obsessed with character origin stories, the early word on Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical movie The FabelmansIt looked like he wanted to be a part of the new cinematic trend. But his crowd-pleasing, coming-of-age-tale doesn’t fit neatly to that box, or any other. His deeply personal narrative isn’t wholly an autobio, a greatest-hits replay of a singular filmmaker’s career, or a cliché ode to moviemaking. The Fabelmans This is a vulnerability reach into the past in order to heal an old wound, which seems still as raw as it was decades ago.

Because at the heart of nearly every Spielberg film is the spirit of a boy, still saddened by his parents’ divorce, papering over his grief in cinema’s vast sandbox. You can see that kid’s pain unconsciously spilling out in the bickering mom and dad characters from Third Kind Close Encounters. This is what happens in family dynamics E.T.Extra-Terrestrial. Und it continues to evolve. Catch Me If You Can, as Frank Abagnale seeks refuge at the home of his mom’s second family. Spielberg never dealt with his childhood as straightforwardly in the new film.

At times, The Fabelmans feels more like an idealized daydream of what could’ve happened to him, which often sands off the real-world edges and the pure anger that he have felt as the son of divorced parents. This isn’t a confessional story. The real-world actors are granted a certain grace. This is something that can only be found after years of hard work. And it features a brand of craftsmanship — from deliberate blocking to controlled, ingenious camera movements — that only occurs when you’re, well, Steven Spielberg. Above all else, it’s an empathetic message from the director to his mother.

Spielberg worked once more with Tony Kushner, his collaborator West Side Story, LincolnPlease see the following: MunichTo develop the script, he was contacted by. Their story begins with Burt (Paul Dano, in a tremendous performance) and Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams, in a show-stopping one) taking their young son Sammy (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord in early scenes, and Gabriel LaBelle in the teenage sequences) to the movies to see Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show On Earth. Sammy is captivated by the images projected onto his screen. The screen also shows a fiery trainwreck where Sammy is trapped in a car, then blood explodes and blasts into the air. This scares him enough that he reenacts every scene with the toy train that he has set.

To calm her son, Mitzi lets Sammy borrow his dad’s camera so he can film the crash as a way to confront his fears. What Mitzi really does, however, is ignite a therapeutic love for movie-making, creating a lens that will become Sammy’s tool for trying to make sense of the world.

Sammy’s universe isn’t that complex. Burt, a highly skilled, hardworking computer engineer, and Mitzi, a classically-trained pianist, are both brilliant. Sammy has three older sisters, Reggie (Julia Butters), Natalie Keeley Karasten and Lisa (Sophia Koopera). The New Jersey home where they all live is the perfect incubator for Sammy’s imagination. They are close-knit members of a Jewish community that shares Jewish tradition, cultural humor and is often visited by their relatives. This movie is very Jewish. They also hang out with Burt’s best friend and colleague Bennie Loewy (Seth Rogen), a man who appears totally supportive of the couple, but whose flaws could one day undo the family. In building out the imperative support system the Fabelmans enjoy in their neighborhood, Spielberg and Kushner’s assured script reveals the cracks that formed once the family left their familiar confines.

Burt is both ambitious and self-centered. His first step is to uproot his family and move them from California to Arizona. Next, he grabs his stick and starts heading toward Northern California. The further the family moves west, the further Sammy drifts away from his family and his roots — which brings him closer to his artistic passions. This early setup, which consumes the first hour of this 151-minute personal essay, runs at a slow pace, with a thesis that’s initially disorientating. What percentage of Spielberg can be found in Sammy’s story? How much of what we’re seeing is fictionalized? Why wasn’t this just named The SpielbergsTo save you the hassle?

One scene shows Sammy sneaking into a movie with his Eagle Scouts friends. It’s telling that John Ford’s Liberty Valance and the Man Who Shot it It is currently playing. John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart star in the film. The story centers around a senator who recounts how his rise was fuelled by legends that he had shot the famed outlaw. It’s a movie about mythmaking, reinvention, and the American West as an imperative setting for creating your own identity. The Fabelmans functions in a similar fashion: It isn’t a beat-for-beat origin story, it’s a chance for Spielberg to reshape the past without the heavy burden of his own name.

This allows him to reappraise his mother’s memory. Sammy and Mitzi look almost identical in many aspects. Burt considers their artistic interests to be hobbies. And Mitzi, in particular, has spent years setting aside her creative goals in favor of her husband’s burgeoning career. In the words of Mitzi’s Uncle Boris (Judd Hirsch, who absolutely crushes his one scene), she could’ve played anywhere for any symphony. Instead she became a mother. Now, she and Sammy are looking for a way past Burt’s idiosyncrasies. The once strong bond between mother and son is broken when Sammy discovers something disturbing about Mitzi in a series of events beautifully crafted by FabelmansEditors Sarah Broshar & Michael Kahn). This causes him temporarily to lose his passion for movie-making.

Do not make any mistakes, though The Fabelmans isn’t dour. The screen is a visual feast. Well-calibrated tracking shots and Janusz Kaminski’s dazzling cinematography set the creative bar. References to Spielberg’s biggest hits add a tip of the cap to his own career. Sammy’s first short films, and then his transition to self-made war movies of decent size, invite viewers to try amateur filmmaking. And at Sammy’s new Los Angeles high school, he falls for a Christian girl, Monica (Chloe East), whose attempts to convert Sammy provide riotous prayers doubling as euphemisms.

Universal Pictures

Yet, the movie is driven by the feeling of loss and betrayal that a child feels following a divorce. It’s where LaBelle shines as the teenage Sammy. He doesn’t just imitate Spielberg’s speaking cadence and his body language. His portrayal of Sammy, as a street-dumb child, is more than just artifice. This is more evident than in Sammy’s confrontation with his anti-Semitic bullying friends through the theatre. The movie loves to watch people watching movies. It appreciates the inner machinations and the hypnotic wonder of seeing themselves in the camera. LaBelle grounds these scenes with a sincerity that doesn’t come off as mawkish, but as euphoric and infectious.

LaBelle can be a wonderful actor on his own but he is at his best when he plays opposite an intense Williams or a subdued, but powerful Dano. This is some of his finest character work. Williams, as the trapped housewife, turns in a freewheeling performance that would qualify as impossibly brilliant in its rawness and liveliness, if she didn’t just pull it off. Williams perfectly articulates the feeling of a woman on the verge of tearing Herself apart, until she remembers that it isn’t herYou can’t have dreams and you don’t want to live.

Spielberg is refreshingly different and doesn’t paint Burt or Mitzi outright as villains. They are complicated people with unignorable needs that they can’t fulfill while staying together. Sammy is able to see the complexity of adulthood. Spielberg embraces it so that he sees his mother as valid and worthy of respect.

By the end of the movie — which includes a too-hilarious to be described cameo by David Lynch as John Ford — Sammy skips down a studio lot knowing his troubles are behind him, and that his future lies just ahead. The FabelmansSpielberg is using his extensive filmmaking expertise to craft a story in which his heart and soul are glued across the screen. It’s beautiful, evocative, enthralling blockbuster filmmaking, perfectly tuned to remind viewers of the power that can reside within a movie.

The FabelmansThe limited-release version will be available on November 11, followed by a wider release on November 23.