First things first, here’s the officially released trailer for Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.”
What to make of Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans”? A 150 minute love letter to his mother, and himself. The reviews are all positive, some have reservations, others don’t. I definitely think it’s flawed.
An 86 on Rotten Tomatoes. Michelle Williams is an absolute lock for an Oscar nom. I’ve spoken to more than a few people who would like to see Judd Hirsch get a Supporting Actor nom. He would deserve it.
The one movie ‘Fabelmans’ most resembles is Woody Allen’s much-shorter “Radio Days” in its gleefully naive eye towards how things used to be 50 years ago and in its nostalgic look at a medium that is somewhat “dying.”
Anyone who grew up watching movies will surely be taken by the first hour, which has Spielberg avatar Sammy (Gabrielle LaBelle) watching “The Greatest Show on Earth” with his parents and falling head over heels for celluloid. He buys a train set and films his own train ash with dad’s camera.
Driven by a very emotional John Williams piano score, the thick of the drama is set in New Jersey, Arizona and California. This is more a movie filled with episodes rather than plot. It’s very ruminative. There’s a lot of nifty scenes involving Sammy shooting home movies with friends. A clumsy bullying subplot only enhances the forced nature of some of these episodes in the second half.
A highlight is a tender scene between Spielberg and an absolute scene-stealing Judd Hirsch (playing his uncle Boris). It hits home. Best Supporting Actor heat for Hirsch? I definitely think so. Despite what is essentially a 10-minute cameo, you remember Hirsch the most out of any of the performances, save for Michelle Williams of course. She’s luminous.
Seth Rogen plays Bennie, the “fake uncle,” Sammy’s dad’s best friend. He and Williams’s Mitzi have an affair. It kills the family dynamic. The scene where Sammy cuts together and screens a movie, for Mitzi, of her affair with Bennie is a deeply effective moment.
Things get a little less involving when Sammy and the family move to Northern California in the second half. Sammy gets bullied in high school, traces of anti-Semitism start to show with nicknames such as “Bagelman” thrown at him.
We all knew this would be praised and it has some very good stretches throughout its 2 and a half hour runtime, but it also meanders a bit. Spielberg skeptics will remain skeptics. His fans will remain fans. This isn’t a game-changer by any stretch of the imagination, but it is going to be praised and win plenty of awards.
This is a deeply self-indulgent work on the part of Spielberg. Was his life story actually worth telling? If he wasn’t Steven Spielberg then this type of story would not be remotely as interesting. The drama is fairly inert and mostly composed of episodic highlights of his life.
Spielberg doesn’t totally get deep enough under the surface of his life. It’s a watered-down version as only Hollywood and himself could have delivered it.
The film ends with a scene worthy for the cinematic time-capsule, it’d be ridiculous for me to reveal it. [B/B+]