Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical masterpiece – newsdubai
For more than fifty years, Steven Spielberg has consistently wowed audiences by showing them the power of film, the sheer bliss and magic inherent in the medium that few other filmmakers have been able to show so effectively. In his incredible career, Spielberg has made the impossible real, brought entire worlds to life, and for many of us was the filmmaker who first showed us the true beauty and power of film. But even with his most moving films, it feels like we’re only getting a glimpse of who Spielberg is—a small glimpse into the life of one of the most iconic directors of all time. But with his latest film, The Fabelman family, Spielberg gets deeply personal and introspective in a way we’ve never seen from him before as he explores his childhood in one of the most moving, honest and poignant films in Spielberg’s already impressive filmography.
Naturally, The Fabelman family begins in the cinema, as seven-year-old Sammy Fabelman (Matthew Zoryna Francis-Deford) is watching his first film: The 1952s The greatest show on earth. He is afraid to enter the dark theater, but his parents assure him that everything will be fine. His father Burt (Paul Dano), a computer engineer, explains to his son in detail the process of the film, how it is simply images moving quickly through a projector – a logical explanation for something magical from an extremely logical man. Whereas Sammy’s mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams) explains that movies are like dreams come to life, a place of wonderful possibilities. This combination of attitudes towards film will be integral to Sammy’s – and Steven Spielberg’s – life, as his style will be a combination of both these views.
But the movies are not just a dark room where you can see dreams come true for Sammy. After witnessing a train crash in the movie, he is determined to recreate what he has seen with his new train set. Sammy states that he need to watch the train crash, and with the help of his mother and their family’s camera, a young Sammy is able to bring this dream back to life, but on his own terms. The Fabelman family is full of truly breathtaking moments like these, where we not only see a young child discover his love for film and a love that will last his entire life, but we see a director make magic come alive. audience when he first felt the magic he now gives to the viewer.
Still, the majority of The Fabelman family shows us teenager Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle), as he becomes a more skilled filmmaker and learns from his life experiences to become even better at his craft. Even at an early age, Sammy can tell this isn’t just a phase for him. When his father calls his filmmaking a hobby, Sammy always rebels against that description, as if he can feel deep in his bones that this is becoming the core of who he really is. He finds the click of the camera comforting, his small editing studio a comfort, and the problem-solving of how to make his films even more impactful a difficult but extremely rewarding task. We see a master discover himself, and in that we see Spielberg look back at his past and piece together where his passion came from.
By doing so, The Fabelman family is like delving into Spielberg’s childhood and watching his memories come to life on screen – something a young Sammy almost certainly never saw as a possibility. Spielberg shows us his process of making his earliest films at a young age, his inspirations and the moments in his life that influenced him to make his early films the way they were. Sammy also films his family and sees his mother, father, sisters and his father’s best friend Bennie (Seth Rogen) in a way that no one else in the family can see. Sammy captures everything with his camera: the joys, the pain, and with that he sees the power that making a film can have – both good and bad. As Sammy’s Uncle Boris (an excellent Judd Hirsch) says on a family visit that he is an art junkie.
With the benefit of hindsight, Spielberg can explore his past and also see where he learned how powerful film can be. For Sammy, movies are not just a form of entertainment, they are a way for him to manipulate emotions – whether consciously or not. Framing something in the right way can make a person feel triumphant or like a monster. Sammy can bring great beauty into the world or he can completely change lives. Although Sammy does this on a very micro level, it’s easy to see how Spielberg would take these lessons to make some of the best movies ever made. Through film, Spielberg can make people see themselves, or who they want to be, and with The Fabelman familyhe’s trying to do that to himself for maybe the first time, showing warts and all in a sort of origin story.
In making this nostalgic and unapologetically sentimental retrospective, Spielberg has brought an absolutely incredible team with him. Co-written by Tony Kusher (Lincoln) and Spielberg (his first screenplay since the 2001s AI artificial intelligence), The Fabelman family goes to great lengths to bring Spielberg’s story to life, and while this is a deeply personal story, The Fabelman family always remains poignant and almost emotionally overwhelming. Janusz Kamiński‘s warm cinematography adds the glow of memory and love for a time long gone in every frame, while John Williams‘ score is naturally moving but never overwhelms the story at hand.
But it’s the cast here that really brings Spielberg’s past to life. LaBelle is phenomenal as the teenager Sammy, an extremely difficult role to play – especially given that he’s being directed by the real person he’s portraying – and yet he nails every transition and important moment in young Spielberg’s life. Williams gives a heartbreaking performance as she tries to put a smile on her family’s face while struggling with her deep unhappiness. As you’d expect from Williams, the actress can say so much with just a simple look, a testament to her brilliance and understated nature, even in a role that can often be larger than life. Dano, on the other hand, is reserved and quiet, but also draws out this internal struggle, albeit one that is hardly the focus of this narrative.
Yet perhaps two of the most startling performances come from supporting roles integral to young Sammy’s life. The first is Hirsch’s Uncle Boris, a character who shows Sammy that his dreams of becoming a filmmaker could actually come true. He is a zinger of energy in the middle of this film, and while his screen time is fairly minimal, his influence is felt throughout this story. But Rogen is particularly great as Bennie, the close family friend who almost becomes a surrogate uncle for the Fabelman children. This is arguably Rogen’s best dramatic performance yet, one that shows the layers of a person as we watch Sammy’s opinion of this character change over the course of the film. It’s a deceptively strong role for Rogen, one that packs a punch in his final moments and highlights the gray area in which we all exist.
With Fabelmans, Spielberg finally opens up to the audience in an extremely vulnerable and moving way. For decades, Spielberg has shown us ourselves through the magic of his films, and with The Fabelman family, he finally shows us who he is, the good and the bad, and the pain and the joys, the magic and the chaos. As with last year West Side Story, Spielberg has proven to be an undeniable master who can still surprise us with his skills all these years later, a filmmaker who has consistently changed the possibilities of film and continues to do so with each new project. Spielberg has given us all so much magic throughout our lives, and The Fabelman family will be another Spielberg masterpiece, but this time by showing us how this magic was made in his own life.
Evaluation: ONE
The Fabelman family hits theaters on November 11.