The Fabelmans (2022)

Dir. Steven Spielberg | Drama | PG-13

One of the main cornerstones of pop culture, director Steven Spielberg, assembles then fictionalizes his childhood through the lens of our protagonist Sammy Fabelman (portrayed by Gabriel LaBelle). A bittersweet drama that heavily touches every artist's soul.

There is something humble about The Fabelmans; the simplicity of admiring the beauty of motion pictures, as much as the story of a passionate little boy.

Plot

The Fabelmans starts where it should: at the movies. The mother, Mitzi (Michelle Williams), is a former concert pianist who gave up her career to raise a family. The father, Burt (Paul Dano), is a computer engineer who works for various tech companies and has a deep passion for crafting with his hands. One night, Mitzi and Burt take their eight-year-old son Sammy (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord) to his first theatrical film experience. Sammy becomes obsessed with witnessing stories unfold on the big screen. Soon enough, the kid is immersed in this fantastical world of filmmaking and storytelling.

Through the eyes of Sammy, Steven Spielberg underlines the never-ending inner conflict between artistic drive and personal responsibility that artists go through.

Acting Performances

The casting in The Fabelmans is ON POINT. In addition to the physical resemblance between some characters and their counterparts in real life, almost all the acting performances were outstanding!

Gabriel LaBelle, as teenage Sammy, is a star in the making! Even if this role of Sammy is technically not his first film role, it is certainly Gabriel LaBelle's big breakthrough. LaBelle delivers all of Sammy's contradictory feelings, jumping from deep passion to desperation, from the ultimate certainty of his skills to absolute confusion.

While Sammy is the story’s focus, Mitzi is its soul. It is no surprise that Michelle Williams is a talented actress. The way she displays every emotion thoroughly, she brings gorgeous delicacy to the character, and her translucent face, and her swift transitions between emotions, speaks more vividly than any line of dialogue. Some might find her performance hysterical or exaggerated, I thought the same at first. However, taking an in-depth look into the struggles and profound emotions this character goes through, you'll soon enough realize that Williams's performance is just on point.

Enter Judd Hirsch, who is barely on screen for 30 minutes as Uncle Boris. His comic and dramatic feat of strength is magnificent in every detail. "Family, art -- it will tear you in two and leave you lonely,"; says Boris, who sees a fellow artist in Sammy.

Visual Experience

Watching "The Fabelmans" feels like a daydream, a visual whimsy dancing across the screen. The scenes of Sammy filming simple shorts with his sisters, then moving up to decent-sized, self-made films with his scout troop, is enough to give an entire audience an itching desire to take up filmmaking.

Soundtrack

John Williams's score is basically the heartbeat of The Fabelmans. Williams and Spielberg are no strangers to each other, with The Fabelmans being their 31st film collaboration, and also, Williams' last film he would score (along with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) before retirement, it's like taking all the memories, the nostalgia, and the magic of Spielberg and Williams's friendship over the years and developing it into one melody.

Genuine and soothing, the score emphasizes that daydream feeling, which adds significantly to the touching plot.

Conclusion

"The Fabelmans" is best described as a fable, just like the title says. As the saying goes, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."; Spielberg diverted an everyday story - his own story - into a myth. The sort of movie where you find yourself smiling unwillingly. A humanist tribute to the movie love we share with Spielberg, our friends and family.

As Mitzi said: "Movies are dreams that you never forget."; and you'll never forget The Fabelmans.

Personal Rating: 8.5 out of 10