Here’s the thing with Steven Spielberg: even his worst films are still pretty good. I loved The Terminal, I even liked Ready Player One, and I know some of his even earlier films like Hook are not exactly critically revered but still a lot of fun. He seemingly can do no wrong, even if Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull exists. (You’ll generally see a lot of negativity towards that movie, but no one ever seems to bring up Spielberg’s name in conjunction with it.)
His most recent release, The Fabelmans, seems like a film that Spielberg has been building up to his whole career. Prior to the film’s opening credits, cinema audiences were treated to a little video of the director himself as a sort of introduction to why he made this film and why it’s important to him – something you rarely see nowadays. When the film does begin, it’s a coming-of-age tale about how he became a director and what was going on through his childhood behind the scenes that influenced him for the rest of his life.
Oh, Spielberg. If I didn’t love you before, this movie only solidified the adoration and admiration I have for you. As you’ve probably noticed from the opening paragraphs, I have a lot of respect for Steven Spielberg, but The Fabelmans made that love even stronger. And I suspect a lot of people felt the same way during this movie.
It’s hard to know where to begin with The Fabelmans. Everything about it is so soft and considered and – as Mr. Spielberg declared at the start of the film – personal. Although it’s difficult to tell where the reality stops and the fiction begins, there’s no doubt that it took a lot for him to tell this story since there’s clearly a lot of pain involved with it. Though the plot is rather slight, it tells you so much about how he became the man that he is today and therefore insight becomes more important than action.
Would you care all too much for this movie if you weren’t familiar with the director or even if you weren’t a fan of his? I’d say probably not as much. But there is something so pure and enthralling about the way Spielberg tells his own story that there’s barely any time to notice its extensive runtime. Lucky for me – and many others – I just love the guy. And it doesn’t hurt that aesthetically it’s so pleasing on the eye.
Now, I have to take a moment to mention the cast. Whilst I was so impressed with newcomer Gabriel LaBelle playing teenage Sammy and Seth Rogen was maybe more nuanced than I’ve ever seen him before, there’s only one MVP here: Michelle Williams. I knew she was good, but she is phenomenal here. I really thought the Academy Award was in the bag for Michelle Yeoh, but goodness me. Williams absolutely deserves it without a doubt, although I wouldn’t mind which Michelle (or Cate, for that matter) it went to.
Put simply, I have nothing bad to say about The Fabelmans. It’s not exactly a thrill a minute or massively technical in any way, but emotionally? It got me right in the chest.
The Fabelmans is still screening in cinemas across the UK.
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