Review: Steven Spielberg takes audience on intimate journey through his formative years

It’s not surprising director Steven Spielberg would craft a film that’s a love letter to the art form he’s helped redefine over the decades.

How he goes about doing it in “The Fabelmans,” a semi-autobiographical film that is also a coming-of-age story about a young film geek who matures into a slightly older film geek who has to deal with the truths in life as well as the images his camera creates. Through it all, it’s a metaphorical road map that surveys Spielberg’s career.

It possesses charm, angst and a touch of heartbreak as Sammy Fabelman has to contend with family issues along with bigotry as a teen in California.

The Fabelman family represents the typical nuclear family of the 1950s when the story begins. Burt (Paul Dano), Sammy’s father, is extremely intelligent, hardworking and very successful. His mother, Mitzi (Michelle Williams), is skilled enough on the piano to have been a concert pianist.

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Young Sammy (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), one of their four children, is precocious and displays all of the intelligence of his parents. An introduction to Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth” sparks that intelligence, blended with creative fire, and Sammy becomes increasingly interested in filmmaking.

Sammy Fabelman − skilled teen filmmaker

By the time he reaches his teen years, Sammy (now played by Gabriel LaBelle), having moved from the East Coast to Phoenix, is making films using his fellow Boy Scouts. He dreams of eventually being a movie director, something his father casually dismisses as a “hobby.”

In that hobby, however, Sammy discovers the power he possesses behind the camera. The lens can reveal the truth or it can create a lie.

In the former, footage from a family vacation to a national park which included Burt’s best friend Bennie (Seth Rogen) revealed an emotional affair his mother was having with him.

With respect to the latter, he found that he was able to turn footage he shot on his school’s senior ditch day and make a hero of the head jock in his Northern California high school while taking that guy’s antisemitic best friend and showing him to be the villainous weasel that he showed so casually in private interactions.

Steven Spielberg directs with subtle hand in 'The Fabelmans'

“The Fabelmans” represents the type of film that is primed for emotional manipulation. No one would have blamed Spielberg had he pumped up the characters’ assorted emotions during their various scenarios, but he resists that urge. “E.T.” for all of its glory could be emotionally manipulative, as was the underappreciated “Hook,” which has found fans 30-plus years after its release.

The scenes and emotions he reveals – those of his parents – come organically and possess a raw honesty that many will identify with. And he does this with a light touch, allowing the audience to see the emotional chasm develop slowly between his parents until it comes to a climax in one heartbreaking scene.

Steven Spielberg has a stellar cast in 'The Fabelmans'

For something so painfully intimate, Spielberg had to have extreme trust in his cast. In that respect, Dano and Williams possess a different sort of chemistry together. It takes as much effort to be emotionally distant as a couple as it does to be close in that regard, and it’s very much on display here.

Dano’s produced a standout year with this part and that of The Riddler in “The Batman.” The two roles could not be more different in tone and feeling and showcase the emotional range that actor possesses. Williams, a four-time Oscar nominee, will surely earn her fifth.

LaBelle probably has the toughest job of them all in portraying an American icon. He gives Sammy the charm and intelligence necessary to create a character that does its subject justice.

Spielberg brings in another heavy hitter for a small part – Judd Hirsch. Hirsch drops in for a small part of Uncle Boris, Sammy’s great uncle, and makes the most of the appearance that is imbued with a wisdom and pathos. It’s a small moment and if it indeed happened, it certainly left an impression on Spielberg.

Steven Spielberg is still at the height of his powers

Spielberg, one of the most influential directors in any century, remains a filmmaker at the height of his powers. In subsequent years he’s added two worthy films – this and “West Side Story” – to his filmography. He’s made numerous emotionally resonant films, but none are as intimate as “The Fabelmans,” which surely called for significant introspection and exploring old memories, but that’s its power as well.

With a script he co-wrote with longtime collaborator Tony Kushner, he’s allowing the audience to see and experience parts of his life the best way he knows, making it all the more meaningful for us. No, it won’t hold blockbuster status, but it most definitely should.

George M. Thomas dabbles in movies and television for the Beacon Journal. Reach him at gthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByGeorgeThomas

Review

Movie: “The Fabelmans”

Cast: Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Running time: 2 hours, 31 minutes

Rated: PG-13 for some strong language, thematic elements, brief violence and drug use

Grade: A-

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Review: Steven Spielberg lets the audience in with 'The Fabelmans'