The Fabelmans

The Fabelmans

A coming-of-age story about a young man’s discovery of a shattering family secret and an exploration of the power of movies to help us see the truth about each other and ourselves.

  • Released: 2022-11-11
  • Runtime: 151 minutes
  • Genre: Drama
  • Stars: Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Julia Butters, Judd Hirsch, Jeannie Berlin, Robin Bartlett, Oakes Fegley, Chloe East, Gabriel Bateman, Art Bonilla, Jonathan Hadary, Sam Rechner, Isabelle Kusman, Keeley Karsten, Sophia Kopera, Greg Grunberg, James Urbaniak, Lane Factor, Meredith VanCuyk
  • Director: Steven Spielberg
 Comments
  • ftalker - 27 April 2024
    FORWARD TO THE PAST
    The fundamental problem with Steven Spielberg's movies is that they are essentially designed as self-therapy for a childhood marred by his parents' divorce. This was most evident in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982), Empire of the Sun (1987) & Catch Me If You Can (2002) in which absent fathers and/or dysfunctional families play a key role.

    Spielberg's persistently-neurotic nostalgia means that his movies are not focused upon a passion for story-telling, but a need to find closure for his unsuccessful struggle to understand both his parents and, inevitably, himself.

    The problem with art therapy - as Carl Jung discovered - is that it seldom produces great art - only self-indulgence instead of self-awareness. If one cannot get beyond trauma, trauma is all that one has to offer others. And it is a certainty that most people have met such people, including ourselves, whom cannot get on with their lives and merely regurgitate their suffering in hopes that the world will sort-of admire them for their honesty.

    Woody Allen is the classic example of this navel-gazing tendency since his body of work does not show any genuine maturing away from his generally pessimistic, narcissistic & nihilistic world-view. But, he just happens to be funny, so he can get away with it. When Mr Allen tries to be serious, however, he is resolutely off-putting and unable to express anything really complex about the human experience.

    Similarly, Steven Spielberg (like Cecil B DeMille) can produce great visual and escapist entertainment which has little to say about humanity; explaining why Spielberg's movies never matured since he remains mostly fixated upon largely-meaningless big-budget spectacle which desperately apes David Lean. But, in Lean's case, he never forgot the characters and their motivations for a single moment of screen time because his action told the audience about the characters and weren't just there to keep the audience awake in-between dialogue scenes.

    With The Fabelmans (2022), Spielberg is still unable to tell us if his great passion in life is storytelling, as such, or merely being someone devoted to re-creating himself as the person he wishes he really were from the safe, emotional distance of the mediating camera-lens - his means of avoiding unresolved issues from childhood.

    The performances are excellent throughout, but the characters are psychologically-thin and, therefore, emotionally-uninvolving. Part of this comes from the fear of revealing too much about oneself in public and the fact that the Spielberg family is really not all that interesting. Had it been anyone else's childhood, would this film have ever been made?

    Mr Spielberg has never really grown-up as a man and this explains a good deal about his great facility with child actors. But it also explains the large decline in his popularity and relevance as a cinematic storyteller and why he is now reduced to flogging-the-dead-horse represented by the last two Indiana Jones' movies.

    Steven Spielberg can't stop making movies and retire because he would still be faced with the trauma that every child goes through when their parents divorce. And this is what he wants to avoid because resolving it might mean facing the fact that he is nothing more than a one-trick-pony film director and nothing more than a hack.
  • DLochner - 26 January 2024
    An emotional family story
    Steven Spielberg tells us the story of the magic of cinema, his own life story, and an emotional family story. Steven Spielberg is one of the few directors who has made so many generations laugh and cry while remaining so consistent in his cinematic output. He managed to connect art with a mass audience. The film autobiographically shows us Spielberg's beginnings as a filmmaker. But even more, we are shown an emotional family story: warm-hearted and open. The film is extremely personal. Coping with pain, fear and fear of loss when a family slowly breaks apart. An acting and cinematic masterpiece. Very deep and emotional. It feels like Spielberg's most personal film.
  • claszdsburrogato - 19 December 2023
    The Fabelmans (2022) Love letter to cinema
    The Fabelmans is a biography by Steven Spielberg. This detail is not said in full words during the narrative, but it is something very explicit. The magic of The Fabelmans story lies in Spielberg's demonstration of love for cinema. The passion that the director has for the seventh art is clear. The beginning of this passion, the development and the disagreements with cinema are super identifiable. The film has an even more special touch when you have that love. The way in which the conflict between family and passion for art is portrayed appears in a very significant dialogue for the story and reveals itself to be even more important throughout the narrative. At the same time that your family can be what motivates your dream, it can also demotivate you and make you find yourself distant from this loving relationship at different times. Your dreams may be seen as just a hobby in the eyes of society, but only you know how significant it is. The Fabelmans is exciting, fun and a love letter to cinema. Without a shadow of a doubt the best film of Steven Spielberg's career.
  • michaeltalacha - 11 January 2023
    Great directorial work, but sometimes too personal plot
    Spielberg made a fairly beautiful film, part of which just didn't interest me. In particular, I mean the story arc with the family and mother. Such a personal story may be interesting to the author, but not to the viewer. In this part of the film, I lacked involvement, I did not immerse myself in the film, the person next to me categorically fell asleep. But everything changes when a school appears. Lively characters, good humor - this is how this part can be characterized. It would seem that the plot is simple, but the dialogues and emotions, as well as some kind of childish naivety deserve praise. The last scene with Ford and Lynch's cameo also raise the film's rating. I would put 6.5 but imdb does not give such an opportunity. Worth watching.
  • RucasL - 8 January 2023
    True art
    The only problem with this movie, is more people should've see it!

    As a musician, i found that Spielberg is a master when it comes to the final production, the vision he creates for us. In these particular scene where Sammy discovers the affair of his mom, the music plays a role of outstanding production, only a man with a great vision for art could do. Not to mention they actually used someone playing for real, and not make belief.

    It was a delightful ride to see every angle and aspect of this movie.

    And the theme from John Williams, is more than a simple music. It's a celebration of a long friendship between some of my favourite cinema stars.

    Thanks Mr. Spielberg, once again.
  • Jeremy_Urquhart - 5 January 2023
    An auto-biopic?
    Auto-biographical elements in Steven Spielberg movies are nothing new, but The Fabelmans takes things to another level. In a lot of ways, it feels like Spielberg directly reminiscing on his childhood, and putting it up on the big screen. There's a certain simplicity to it as a result, but it does thankfully make for an engaging movie. Performances are quite strong across the board, the celebration of filmmaking shines through in a number of key scenes, and it's undoubtedly well-made. It has the level of proficiency and visual polish you'd expect from a film made by a director this great, and in its best moments, it's a joy to watch a master of his craft at work.

    It didn't always work for me, though. I think there are some lines of dialogue here and there that didn't ring true, and a few things about the characters that weren't clear. 150 minutes also feels long for this kind of story, but at the same time, it only felt slightly too long. I think if it had just been 10-15 minutes (or felt 10-15 minutes shorter), I wouldn't have even thought about the runtime while watching it.

    Still, it's a movie I'd recommend seeing at the movies. It would lose something if you watched it at home, I think, and even if I wouldn't include it among Spielberg's best films, it's a solid late-career film that feels very Spielbergian, and for much of the film's runtime, that's enough.

    Even as I write this review, I should note I typed "Spielbergian" and it didn't put a red squiggly line under it to suggest it's not a real word. You know you've made it as an artist if something can be described as "surnameian" (that gets a red squiggle by the way) and the dictionary says, "Yeah, that's a real word. I'll allow it."
  • FixedYourEnding - 2 January 2023
    Slow progression, but rewarding watch
    Loosely based on Spielberg's life story, "The Fablemans" shows the life of a growing movie producer from the time he is about 6 to the age of 22. Although the movie is told from the eyes of the young boy (or man), it covers his close family, mom, dad and 2 sisters and his dad's closest friend Bennie (played by Seth Rogan). After reading about it, I was surprised how close it was to his real story, not that loose at all and I very much appreciated that fact.

    Since Spielberg did direct some of the most iconic movies of all times (Schindler's list, Jaws, E. T, Jurassic Park etc etc), it is hard to say that "The Fabelmans" can take a top spot in that list, however judged in a vacuum I still think it is a great movie, my only complaint with it being that the progression is very slow and might lose some viewers over that. There are not many big events or something that super extraordinary, but considering this is almost a documentary, it is well worth watching for those of us who are interested in a realistic story.

    Covering the early years of Steven.. er.... I mean Sammy, saves the movie from telling anything about modern day movies and only covers couple of his early years shorts, which their make-of details are murky anyway. It could have been a story about anybody, but no, it is Spielberg's story and that worth a few points in my book, otherwise I would probably rank it a bit lower.

    In summary, if you can sit through a semi-documentary film about filmmaking and coming-of-age story, then please give Fabelmans a try. It is different than the usual Spielberg block-busters and probably would not be a financial success, but if you coming in with the right expectations, I feel you will not be disappointed. Exact score: 78 / 100.
  • fvhimawan - 30 December 2022
    Quality that cannot be denied
    A fast pace drama easy to follow with no complicated dialogue, this movie just show a quality that cannot be denied.

    The casts play their characters so well, which shows quality in every aspects.

    We may hate Paul Dano in Batman, but here he is able to play so well that I even forget that I hate him as Riddler in Batman... hahahahha.....

    Gabriel Labelle definitely has a bright future, being chosen to play the main role here is serious.

    Although the family drama is hard, but this movie can makes us felt the experience without being drown to deep in the complication.

    This drama movie is a must watch.

    We may hate.
  • pixrox1 - 28 December 2022
    Sam tells his dad that he wants to quit college because . . .
    . . . his roommate voted for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 U. S. Presidential Election. In the next scene, it's implied that a brief meeting with rabid "conservative" director John Ford is the highlight of young Sam's life, even though it was widely publicized at the time that Ford proudly proclaimed that HE'D cast a ballot for nuclear warmonger Goldwater of the loathsome Totalitarian Party. No one with the ability to read newspapers or comprehend the television news would have had any truck with the reptilian Ford during the 1960's, IF they had a Progressive bone in their body, or any empathy for loyal, average, normal, patriotic Union Label working class people. Ford was one of the mouthiest members of the infamous Tinsel Town Ten, the sort of back-stabbing snitches that would rat out their own parents and siblings to advance or avoid damaging their own careers. Along with his so-called "stock company" members War Bonds and Marion Mitchell "Duke-the-Family-Mutt" Morrison, the tawdry ten included mercenaries Frank Kaput, E. Crazy, Head Hopper, Charlatan Hessian, Ginger Snapper and her mom, and--of course--Ron the Gypper.
  • luismcdbrito - 26 December 2022
    OMG this is not a movie this is Steven Spielberg
    Every Spielberg simple movie deserves a complex explanation.

    This is not the case.

    This could be a Steven Spielberg's biography about Steven Spielberg but not exactly.

    This is the essence of the factory of dreams.

    This is about life.

    This is about dreams.

    This is about talent.

    This is about fantasy.

    This is about CINEMA.

    And CINEMA is about life, dreams, talent, fantasy and much more.

    CINEMA is STEVEN SPIELBERG.

    STEVEN SPIELBERG is Cinema.

    If we need to wait 50 years to see a movie like this that say American CINEMA from the beginning till the end we should be happy to be alive.

    Some men see the world with a different perspective so we can continue to dream and wait that there will be more CINEMA like this.