Luke Thorne’s review published on Letterboxd:
Steven Spielberg’s coming-of-age drama. Being raised after the Second World War in Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) aims to become a filmmaker as he reaches youth.
The Fabelmans is loosely based on the director Steven Spielberg’s adolescence and his first years as a moviemaker, with the movie dedicated to Steven’s real-life mother and father.
This is a movie that Steven wanted to get to the big screen for 23 years, yet it is also, for me, his most personal project he has done.
The director’s previous film was West Side Story, his adaptation of the 1957 stage musical of the same name, loosely based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which won Ariana DeBose the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making history as she became the first queer woman of colour to win a Golden statuette. That movie is right bang in the middle for me.
Steven’s latest film is one that results in a personal triumph!
The story concerns young Sammy Fabelman who falls in love with films after his parents take him to see the The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Armed with a camera, Sammy begins to shoot his own movies at home, much to the pleasure of his compassionate mother (Michelle Williams).
Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord gives a respectable performance in his role as the young Sammy whose life is going to change forever after witnessing one key scene in Cecil B. DeMille’s epic drama, while Gabriel LaBelle is very good in his part as the elder Sammy who is determined to make his dream come true.
Elsewhere, there is an excellent performance to be had from Michelle Williams in her part as Mitzi, Sammy’s mother supporting her son every step of the way, while Paul Dano is decent as Bart, Sammy’s father and a computer engineer.
Seth Rogen as Burt’s colleague Bennie, Judd Hirsch as Sammy’s uncle Boris, Julia Butters as Sammy’s younger sister Reggie and Chloe East as Sammy’s love interest Monica are all respectable in their respective roles.
The direction from Spielberg is excellent because he allows the facial expressions to be seen to a strong and sometimes-powerful effect throughout, while also keeping a mixed atmosphere and a mainly light tone happening as well.
The script is written to a terrific standard by the director and Tony Kushner as they make the movie really easy to follow and create some humour too, meaning the movie never takes itself too seriously. But even when the movie isn’t funny, you can still understand what is happening, because the narrative is definitely there from beginning to end.
The set, camera, music, costume and editing stand out best in terms of the technical aspects, because the set is brilliant to look at; the camera makes very good use of the locations and also captures the occasional tense and sometimes-funny moments well, which deservedly get the edge-of-the-seat status; the music is fantastic to listen to; the costumes are excellently designed; the movie is edited to a terrific effect.
At the time of writing, the movie got 5 Golden Globe nominations: Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Actress – Drama (Michelle Williams), Best Screenplay (Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner) and Best Original Score (John Williams).
Overall, The Fabelmans is a fantastic drama, due to the excellent performance in particular from Michelle Williams, along with the direction, script, mixed atmosphere, tense moments and some humour. One of the best movies from this year.
