The Fabelmans

Steven Spielberg – 2022 – USA

Late in his life and long career, Steven Spielberg finally produced his “love letter” to cinema with The Fabelmans. It is undoubtedly his most personal film, not just because of its autobiographical elements but because it unambiguously expresses his love for the film medium. It is also possibly his best movie since E.T., yes, forty years prior. Admirably, Spielberg bypasses portraying himself as a genius destined for greatness, opting for a more realistic, though fictional, and down-to-earth portrait of a boy simply falling in love with motion pictures and progressively realizing that he does indeed have a gift; the knack for knowing what will click between story, style and audience. This gift is the core of his entire career and reputation; fully on display in his earliest features like Duel and The Sugarland Express and erupting into the cultural zeitgeist with Jaws and many blockbusters since then. While Martin Scorsese’s ode to cinema, Hugo, somehow feels remote and maudlin at the same time, Spielberg’s film manages to be much more genuine as he minds the guard rails keeping him from veering into the all-out schmaltz that one would reasonably expect from him at this point and with this type of subject matter. He’s certainly been guilty of that countless times. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, young Sammy Fabelman gradually accepts that filmmaking is his calling in life. He alternately nurtures this gift and denies it, until he is forced to ponder the impact it has on his personal life and his loved ones. Spielberg also manages something that must have been tremendously difficult; he essentially has to portray himself as a boy genius discovering his magic touch with movies but without coming off as immodest while doing so. I think it works because he’s so fixated on film only. It would be different if Sammy was portrayed as a blessed possessor of any other qualities, such as high IQ, courage or righteousness. In these areas, Sammy is simply average. As family difficulties worsen, he often has no wisdom or solution to offer except to crave escape. He and his family also face persecutions of varying shades for being Jewish. Some scenes will seem a little too on-the-nose for some viewers, but overall, I read restraint in almost all of Spielberg’s choices, at least compared to his other films. He reserves only one flight of whimsy in the entire film, in the very last shot, after Sammy has emerged from a surprise encounter with the legendary John Ford on a studio lot. It’s a heartwarming and self-referential indulgence that – as far as I can recall – is something that this traditional film purest has never done in any film before. The Fabelmans is a film that can entertain and inspire audiences even if they have no interest in film as an art form, but it should definitely be of special interest to fellow filmmakers whether established or aspiring.