The Fabelmans (2022)

The Fabelmans (2022)

 7/10

Starring

Michelle Williams

Paul Dano

Seth Rogen

Gabriel LaBelle

 

Directed by Steven Spielberg

 

I have this feeling this movie would have been a box office hit if it was done like a decade or two ago. A lot of people born in the later years see movie makers like Spielberg and Lucas as legends of the old cinema and may not be hyped to go see what made them who they are. So, it is sad that many are not tripping to get to the theatres to see this movie which is a semi-autobiographical story on Spielberg’s life.

One thing to respect about this movie and the idea it showed was that Spielberg is just one step ahead of many movie makers before him and even now. The movie had this wonderful touch that draws you in and makes you wonder how his life would have been if not for movies. In this film, the character Sammy (who portrays Spielberg during his adolescence life) would have had a different world if he never saw that movie that got him obsessed in train crashes.

The movie has this wonderful way of seeing Sammy not as one boy who was innocent and was just elevated by the power of movie making. But as one who also had his challenges and is flawed and hides these flaws behind the love for the camera. This is not one high revelation of the movie, but something that even his sister tells him.

Starting with young Sammy being made to go see a movie for the first time. We see how the action in the movie made him fall in love with the screen. With the aid of his mother and his adopted uncle he was able to turn this obsession to a reality and struggle through school wanting to be accepted by others. Also making film about their high-school trip. We see his struggle with bullies and anti-Semitism, what I also enjoyed is how the movie did not pretend that he was above fear and lies to avoid a beating.

His dysfunctional family problems also pushed him to working behind the camera as he had to struggle with his parents getting a divorce and he trying to be a movie maker for real.

The movie focuses more on his life growing up rather than the movie making part of his adulthood.

In the end, I feel this movie will not get the needed attention it needs as we get to see the love of movies grow in one of the best movie makers of our lifetime, regardless of all the award nomination nods it gets.