Like a reflective revery, Steven Spielberg looks back at his own life with the 2022 Academy Award nominated (seven selections, including Best Picture) feature film The Fabelmans.
Co-written (along with Tony Kushner) and directed by Spielberg, he creates a throwback style picture, something along the lines of the moving I Remember Mama (1948). . . a sweeping retrospective of love and death, bullying and forgiveness, familial unity and division, over several decades.
The Spielberg name becomes Fabelman, with Sammy replacing the name Steven (Gabriel LaBelle; as a younger child, Mateo Zoryan). We open with his parents, the weak tech genius Burt (Paul Dano) and artsy centre of attention Mitzi (Michelle Williams – in an Oscar nominated role) taking him to his first movie – 1952’s The Greatest Show on Earth. Nervous at first (spooked by the big people onscreen and the darkness of the theatre), a train crash scene blows his mind. . . traumatizing to say the least, it also leads to a fascination about how that effect was achieved – this becoming the genesis film of his life.
Soon, Burt is accepting a job in Arizona, taking his family, and best friend tagalong Bennie (Seth Rogen), along for their new journey. There, Sammy will continue developing his skills as an amateur film maker (much to the chagrin of his father. . . who sees it as a hobby, not a possible profession), this creative path continuing even when they pack up and move once more to California.
A quaint little family film, the narrative, which is quite simple by Spielberg standards, is given added grace thanks to it being the director’s own recollections of his past – giving the audience a bird’s-eye-view into how a passion in this special individual leads to him becoming arguably the most renowned director of his era. Though in many ways incomparable to a film like Brian De Palma’s Blow Out, they do have something in common. . . as they are both about making movies, and provide cinephiles with an opportunity to gain insight into seeing things like the editing process, or simply how the magical moving picture moments are achieved.
Filled with a nice visual flair, the movies Sammy makes arguably bring the most joy. Providing film fans with a behind the scenes look at how he made these movies, we see practical special effects at their most simple yet entertainingly effective. There are also moments of classic Spielberg. . . a twister-chasing scene leads to a callback to some of his earlier iconic moments – the railroad crossing scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and burning train sequence from War of the Worlds being replaced here with some runaway shopping carts blocking their way. And, it also feels a little bit like the dinosaur stampede in Jurassic Park too.
And, of course, you can’t mention a Steven Spielberg film without talking about the legend that is John Williams. A score that will, at points, harken you back to his earlier work, but with a nice twist, it is forever a dream to listen to his music. It brings a smile to my face that this is his fifty-third Oscar nomination (and, at 91, he becomes the oldest person ever nominated for an Academy Award).
A view into the mind of a cinematic genius, The Fabelmans is a nice little film that takes a rarer and much different tone when compared to the epics Spielberg has reveled in – be it Jaws, E.T., or Saving Private Ryan, to name but a few. Yet, at its heart, it is still about those things he is most intrigued by – childhood wonder, ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and families who deal with difficult issues. There are two final comments that need to be made: cameos from Judd Hirsch (playing a long unseen uncle) – a quirky cinematic aside that has earned the longtime actor his second Oscar nod, and a most joyous surprise when Sammy meets the infamously blunt John Ford (brought to entertaining life by director David Lynch). Look to the last shot of the film to see if Spielberg uses the advice the iconic director gave to him. So, see the foibles, fantasies and fables of the Spielberg family, it’s no surprise they’re cinematic.