An auteur remembers
Whether or not you think Steven Spielberg ranks among the world's greatest filmmakers will have a lot to do with how much you enjoy The Fabelmans. But no matter what you think of his work, to argue that he doesn't know how to make a movie would be a fool's errand. Because in truth he is one of the greatest there has ever been. Without reducing his style to a laundry list of quirks and fixations - la Quentin Tarantino with his "snappy" dialogue, or his equally disruptive peer George Lucas with his CGI obsession - Spielberg has earned the term "Spielbergian". The fractured families, the innocent worldview, the masterful command of tension are all very much in his cinematic DNA. Few could make a cup of water so fraught with danger (Jurassic Park, 1993), and without Spielberg, arguably there would be no Marvel Cinematic Universe. Jaws (1975) launched the idea of a blockbuster as we know it today.
So perhaps it's not that strange that after putting an indelible mark on Hollywood, Spielberg, now 76, is feeling reflective. And with that reflection comes what is essentially a biopic of his own life. The Fabelmans examines the world, spaces, events and people that result in Jewish New Jersey kid Sammy Fabelman's journey to Arizona and later Los Angeles, and eventually on the path to filmmaking in the 1970s. One part bio, one part family drama, and one part interrogation of the magic and power of the movies, The Fabelmans sneaks up on you, and grabs you intellectually and emotionally before you even realize what's happening. It's Spielbergian.
The story opens in 1952, when Sammy's computer engineer father Burt (Paul Dano) and his mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams) take him to the neighborhood theater to see the year's biggest Hollywood spectacle The Greatest Show on Earth. Sammy is so taken by the film's wondrous images that he recreates its train crash scene in the family basement with Burt's 8mm camera, to that point only used for making home movies. Sammy (relative newcomer Gabriel LaBelle) continues what his father calls a hobby into his teens in Phoenix and then in Saratoga, California (where the anti-Semites spring up), when Burt lands a job with IBM. As he teaches himself filmmaking by watching movies, Sammy also learns the hard way that pictures never lie, and how it's possible to follow one's chosen narrative while editing out the rest.
The Fabelmans is Spielberg firing on almost all cylinders. It doesn't quite hit the spectacular highs of the pandemic-sidelined West Side Story (2021), or the technical mastery of Jurassic Park or War of the Worlds (2005), or for that matter, the emotional weight of Saving Private Ryan (1998) or E.T. (1982) - never mind Schindler's List (1993). But there are many, many moments of grace and elegance in what boils down to the director's life story, and if it's halfway accurate, this is Spielberg at his most honest. In a scene set to the filmmaker's regular collaborator John Williams' perfect score, Sammy comes face to face with a betrayal in the family, and grasps just how much power his flatbed editor holds.
A strong cast helps us understand Spielberg the artist too. Dano plays the supportive dad and husband, oblivious to the goings on in his family. Seth Rogen as his friend and partner Bennie is great when he's not focused on being the class clown. But it's Michelle Williams who provides the film's emotional backbone as the adult who appears to have had the biggest influence on the budding auteur. Tortured and unhappy, but also loving and joyful, Williams' Mitzi transcends muse status and dares to give Sammy's art, and Spielberg's bio, a point.
