For someone that helped forge the blockbuster era, Steven Spielberg has been kind of low-key in recent years for the most part—I guess after decades of elaborate pictures, it makes sense to tune down in his older years. Even passing up directing the next Indiana Jones (and after the trailer for that, I’m not sure I’d blame him), perhaps to do more personal pictures, perhaps to finally chase one more Oscar, perhaps a combination—either way, The Fabelmans is the latest in this line, and perhaps more personal than most.
Essentially an autobiographical piece via a fictionalized version of himself and his family, Fabelmans is Spielberg in all the ways—that includes very on the nose dialogue and scene setups that don’t really hide what they’re trying to convey. And that also includes, as always, his talent for technical verisimilitude—from Normandy beaches to temples of doom, Spielberg has always been able to sell the setting, and he does this just as well for the fifties/sixties period here, battleship-sized finned cars and all. Plus, yes, alongside the clunky moments, comes the ones that do actually work well, especially when the visuals come into their own.
Gabrielle LaBelle plays ‘Sammy Fabelman’ for most of the film, as he discovers a burgeoning passion for filmmaking—while in the process caught between his family struggles. His increasingly neurotic mother (Michelle Williams) and his career-chasing father shunting the clan across the country (Paul Dano) provide most of the drama side, with a family friend (Seth Rogen) proving a catalyst of sorts. There’s fairly typical teenage turns of weird girlfriends, and in Sammy’s case, antisemitic bullying—with, every once in a while, a show-stealing one scene wonder like Judd Hirsch to give him some guidance.
I admit, as someone who did some home movies in my early teenage movies, there were no shortage of things that rang true for me—an obsession with ‘realism’ and trying in vain to capture the feel of movies with actual budgets, as well as trying to wrangle the whole technical side. These days anyone can just hit record on a smartphone, but almost anytime past fifteen or so years ago, you would need something to cobble camera footage together—and further beyond that, all sorts of gizmos to let you assemble your physical reels. As someone who’s studied all those old-timey methods, including the now-lost art of using two combined VCRs as a makeshift editing station, there was certainly a good amount to catch the eye.
And yes, beyond that, I certainly related to Sammy trying to get actual performance out of his friends-turned-actors—be it those who had no clue what ‘emoting’ even means, and those who got way too into it.
So, while that leaves Fabelmans perhaps a little bit too long and with some slightly awkward moments, there’s also enough sincerity and solid performance that I found it a worthwhile enough watch. Of course, like with some of Spielberg’s recent projects, it hasn’t done so well box-office wise—a sign of the times, lackluster marketing, whatever the reason may be, it would still remain more interesting than another redundant franchise followup with ageing leads. With all the good and the bad, it may be a more deserving coda to this director.
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