The Fabelman’s from a distance could seem to be an overly, saccharine, and perhaps ego driven, portrayal of Director Spielberg’s life as he showcases his own childhood in the light he would want. Many films particularly have late have done that exactly concept to varying degrees of success by living artists with a vested interest in their own portrayal. Fortunately this isn’t quite the case here, as Spielberg finds spots both beautiful and sorrowful in his life, that tell not only his story, but a story of America, and yes a story about the power of movies.
At the start of the film, we’re introduced to young Sammy, the Speilberg stand-in played at this age by Mateo Zoryan Francis-DeFord, as he watches his first film in theaters ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. After a rather traumatic, and surely incredible at the team, train crash, his mother Mitzi Schildkraut-Fabelman, played by Michelle Williams, gives Sammy his Dad’s camera to film his own toy train crashing so he can “watch it as many times as he wants” till he’s no longer scared.
This quite wonderfully sets up not only the film itself, providing a preview of how later in life Sam as he’s known then films as if it’s the only way he can understand the tumultuous reality around him, but it also sets up Spielberg’s career. As is famously known of course to us the audience, Spielberg in only 20 years on from this moment will be exploring the wondrous, and at times terrifying, nature of everything from sharks to aliens, and inviting us to join him on this ride.
Not all of Spielberg’s life could be so neatly explained to him in movies though, as it is to us in the film, as Sam still has to contend with many real life struggles: a family regularly on the move, anti-Semitism especially at school, and a family secret that will have major ramifications on all of their lives. Spielberg is also trapped in the conventions of the time, exacerbated by the schism between his parents, his father Arnold Spielberg, the incredibly genius early computer engineer, played by Paul Dano, and his mother Mitzi the should-be concert pianist.
Dano isn’t left with a lot of opportunities to emote, except for a few key scenes, and in those moments he meets the challenge. Williams though is transformative as Sam’s mother. Perhaps almost more than Sam himself, we see her struggle and grow, and truly have an arc worthy of a film itself. Perhaps Spielberg was in fact only thinking of his mother when he set on this project. So often the film makes it clear too that if anyone was like Mitzi in the family it’s Sam, and so perhaps he’s showcasing who perhaps most impacted him as a creative force, or maybe he’s even in a way giving Mitzi the spotlight she so obviously deserved with her own talents.
(from left) Natlie Fabelman (Keely Karsten), Lisa Fabelman (Sophia Kopera), Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams) and Sammy Fabelman (Gabriell LaBelle) in The Fabelmans, co-written, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg
Gabriel LaBelle plays the older Sam, and he’s equally incredible, as he has to play young Sam, struggling at home, fighting with bullies in school, searching for love, and all the while trying to understand his passion for movies. LaBelle you can tell will be a start to watch for sometime, and I’m excited to follow alongside his career.
Perhaps the most surprising star turn to me, and only because its by an actor we know so well, is Seth Rogen as Bennie Loewy. Benny is known by the family as Uncle Loewy despite no familial connection, and early on he’s always simply around to the chagrin of Mitzi’s mother because he’s so beloved. Loewy;s role starts small, but builds with the film, and Rogen excels as the story evolves. Rogen’s often been a ‘love him or hate him’ actor, outside of a few films or ‘Freaks and Geeks’, but if you’re one that’s usually not on Rogen’s wave length, this is a fresh reminder of his talents. Sure he’s playing a milder version of the gregarious guy he his, but there’s more subtlety and nuance than you might expect, and it’s a delight to see him in this way again.
Of course when Spielberg tells a story about the movies, you know there will need to be many shots of the movies, and of Spielberg’s home movies in particular, and Spielberg’s go-to cinematographer Janusz Kamiński does an incredible job portraying these moments. Spielberg’s early war film, his western, and his high school movie, are incredibly fun moments that are also beautifully shot. You almost have to wonder how much Spielberg might have been there saying “well we shot it like this” during the shoots, perhaps to the chagrin, or delight, of Kamiński.
Of course, moments Spielberg didn’t direct in his life, as he is now, that also looked beautiful include simpler moments in his home. One particular shot I looked forward to every time was the ones where Sam would simply watch his movies at home, and you could see Sam’s enthusiasm and love for the film he was about to watch even before he’d seen it. There’s a certain immersive beauty, even when he’s just in his closet with Mitzi watching a film. Spielberg and Kamiński are able to show these moments as if it’s as grand as a film premiere, and in many ways for these characters in this moment it truly is.
Ultimately the Fabelman’s delivers where so few bio-pics, of which I’d ultimately classify this as one, and so few movies about movies, fail. In this year in particular we have seen many of the latter go unloved – Babylon and Empire of Light – or underwatched, ‘The Fabelmans’ included as an underseen film. Spielberg’s able though to plumb the depths of his life, and his trauma, for many movie moments that showcase a time in history we should not forget, especially with anti-Semitism on the rise, and those times we should remember, the joy and passions one has as a child, and the love of one’s family. Spielberg, now 76 and having lost both parents, knows these moments and memories won’t always last in life, but in the movies they can live on.
