The Fabelmans
After making films about dinosaurs and Abraham Lincoln, Steven Spielberg, chooses a new subject to make an epic about: himself.
The Fabelmans is Spielbergs rawest, most personal film he has ever made. Spielberg is the latest director to follow the trend of a self-indulgent, cinematic retelling of their life. Sammy is a semi-autobiographical character that is a stand-in for himself. The film follows Sammy from childhood to adulthood as he moves around the country and falls in love with moviemaking. In the way of his passion is the deterioration of his parents' marriage. While described as a movie about movies, The Fabelmans is actually about how the medium can uncover and shape a family’s darkest truths. The film is as edgy and packed with nostalgia as a Spielberg movie would be to stay on brand.
The opening scene follows a seven-year-old Sammy being prepped by his parents as he is about to experience his first movie, The Greatest Show on Earth. His eyes widen as he watches the two trains crash into one another, sparking creativity at home to crash his own model train sets and capture the action. His recreation of the trains crashing marks the beginning of his eye for directing. He starts off using the medium to process his emotions about the confusing world around him.
Sammy is gifted with a great sense of visuals and an understanding of the image versus the observer. Steven Spielberg is a master at that technique. Sammy’s love for film is not about knowing every fact about the industry, but understanding how to tell a story and the art behind it. One of the underlying focuses is how what is presented to the viewer affects them. Each time one of Sammy’s movies is shown, the camera lingers on the audience to capture their reactions to what they are watching. The draw of movies to Sammy is how they make people feel. So many of the film’s best scenes are the silent, nonverbal acting of its cast as they watch Sammy’s films and face their truths.
The Fabelman family consists of three sisters who are just background; a computer genius dad; and a mother overflowing with admiration for her children. The portrait presented of this American family is more for observation than understanding. Everyone in the cast understands their assignment for being there and completes it.
Michelle Williams offers a dizzying portrayal of Spielberg’s mother. Paul Dano as the father is a bit more distant. Spielberg’s films are filled with absent parents, so to watch a story centered around parental figures is fascinating. A major detail within the film is the combustion of their marriage caused by his father’s best friend. Sammy’s home movies allow him to understand this uncomfortable dynamic. The camera gives him new insight into his family that drives him to edit and reshape truths to escape.
By using a camera to build a barrier between himself and the messiness of the world, Spielberg explores the power of storytelling as a navigation tool . Nothing new or groundbreaking happens in this film, but it is a callback to a more nostalgic time in the director’s life. Audiences unhappy with the modern Spielberg era will be satisfied by this attempt to get raw.