The Fabelmans is a legacy movie, one that's supposed to cap off a legendary career. While Spielberg is still going strong, it's clear that Fabelmans is intended to cement his legacy with this film. It's semi-autobiographical, young Jewish filmmaker Sammy Fabelman builds on his childhood passion for films as his family's life falls apart around him. The film follows Sammy, his parents and three sisters, through his early childhood up to college, with everything from fun family trips, moving across the country, and his parent's divorce. It's a very heartfelt movie, and most of its scenes have a deeply personal touch to them. Some of the best scenes in this film are the scenes of just them having fun together as a family.
The cast and acting are fantastic. The standout performance is that of Michelle Williams. Mitzi, Sammy's mother, is such a lively character, and Williams performs her serious and fun moments excellently. Hers was easily the best in the movie, and quite possibly the best of her career as well. The child actors were good as well. Gabriel LaBelle, teenage Sammy's actor, was also very good for someone new on the scene. Judd Hirsch's extremely limited role was a good one, and he completely steals his one scene. The Fabelmans will also be remembered as probably the last collaboration between Spielberg and the legendary John Williams, the greatest director-composer duo there ever was, and is likely to ever be. The soundtrack is more intimate than most of Williams' music, and feels very much like Satie.
There are two things this movie did right as a biopic. The first is that Spielberg does not make his own self-insert this perfect guy. The other, which is tied directly to the first, is that every member of the Fabelman family is treated fairly, himself included. Regarding the first, there isn't much self-indulgence in this movie (although if anyone has earned it, it's Spielberg). Sammy is brilliant at what he does, but he's depicted as no less faulted than anyone else. With the second, there's the way everyone and their actions are looked at not through the eyes of Sammy, but rather through Spielberg himself. The movie doesn't live in the moment of its own time, it looks at it through more mature eyes.
And yet, it's not a masterpiece. The Fabelmans is a good film, but it's neither as good as it was expected to be nor as good as it really can be. The main issue with the movie is the pacing, it can't eat everything on its plate, despite the 2 hour, 31 minute runtime. It dedicates way too much time to things that really aren't that important, such as the mini-arc with the high school girlfriend, Monica. Furthermore, a lot of major ideas, like his father viewing moviemaking as a hobby rather than a career, is underdeveloped. It starts out and ends as a movie about an aspiring filmmaker, but then gets lost along the way. It also doesn't help that most of the best scenes in this movie are clustered towards the beginning of the film. The first ten minutes of the movie are practically perfect, but the last third of it really starts to drag. Judd Hirsch's character of Uncle Boris is a great character, but he only has one scene. The movie spends as much time building up his arrival as it does actually having him on the screen. Given the role that this character plays in Sammy's life, it would make sense to give him more screen time. There is definitely enough material to fill that runtime, but it is not used properly.
I can't help but compare this to one of last year's contenders, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast. They have quite a lot in common. Both are a semi-autobiographical film by an acclaimed director that focuses on his childhood growing up in a tumultuous time period with difficult family decisions looming over them, and movies are a light in the darkness and the source of his inspiration. They even both have the same shot of the child protagonist staring in awe upon seeing his first movie in the theater. The difference is that Belfast makes better use of its time, doesn't show anything unnecessary, and does all this despite being 50 minutes shorter.
This is perhaps an instance where there were unfair expectations for the movie heading in. There was a time before release when people were acting like this movie was a lock for Best Picture. The trailer for the movie is one of the best in recent memory. And it did get glowing reviews from the critics and all the major nominations, and Best Picture at the Globes. Very few movies can live up to standards as high as that. And it is a pity, because if this movie was as good as it could have been, it would no doubt find its place among Spielberg's all-time greats.
The cast and acting are fantastic. The standout performance is that of Michelle Williams. Mitzi, Sammy's mother, is such a lively character, and Williams performs her serious and fun moments excellently. Hers was easily the best in the movie, and quite possibly the best of her career as well. The child actors were good as well. Gabriel LaBelle, teenage Sammy's actor, was also very good for someone new on the scene. Judd Hirsch's extremely limited role was a good one, and he completely steals his one scene. The Fabelmans will also be remembered as probably the last collaboration between Spielberg and the legendary John Williams, the greatest director-composer duo there ever was, and is likely to ever be. The soundtrack is more intimate than most of Williams' music, and feels very much like Satie.
There are two things this movie did right as a biopic. The first is that Spielberg does not make his own self-insert this perfect guy. The other, which is tied directly to the first, is that every member of the Fabelman family is treated fairly, himself included. Regarding the first, there isn't much self-indulgence in this movie (although if anyone has earned it, it's Spielberg). Sammy is brilliant at what he does, but he's depicted as no less faulted than anyone else. With the second, there's the way everyone and their actions are looked at not through the eyes of Sammy, but rather through Spielberg himself. The movie doesn't live in the moment of its own time, it looks at it through more mature eyes.
And yet, it's not a masterpiece. The Fabelmans is a good film, but it's neither as good as it was expected to be nor as good as it really can be. The main issue with the movie is the pacing, it can't eat everything on its plate, despite the 2 hour, 31 minute runtime. It dedicates way too much time to things that really aren't that important, such as the mini-arc with the high school girlfriend, Monica. Furthermore, a lot of major ideas, like his father viewing moviemaking as a hobby rather than a career, is underdeveloped. It starts out and ends as a movie about an aspiring filmmaker, but then gets lost along the way. It also doesn't help that most of the best scenes in this movie are clustered towards the beginning of the film. The first ten minutes of the movie are practically perfect, but the last third of it really starts to drag. Judd Hirsch's character of Uncle Boris is a great character, but he only has one scene. The movie spends as much time building up his arrival as it does actually having him on the screen. Given the role that this character plays in Sammy's life, it would make sense to give him more screen time. There is definitely enough material to fill that runtime, but it is not used properly.
I can't help but compare this to one of last year's contenders, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast. They have quite a lot in common. Both are a semi-autobiographical film by an acclaimed director that focuses on his childhood growing up in a tumultuous time period with difficult family decisions looming over them, and movies are a light in the darkness and the source of his inspiration. They even both have the same shot of the child protagonist staring in awe upon seeing his first movie in the theater. The difference is that Belfast makes better use of its time, doesn't show anything unnecessary, and does all this despite being 50 minutes shorter.
This is perhaps an instance where there were unfair expectations for the movie heading in. There was a time before release when people were acting like this movie was a lock for Best Picture. The trailer for the movie is one of the best in recent memory. And it did get glowing reviews from the critics and all the major nominations, and Best Picture at the Globes. Very few movies can live up to standards as high as that. And it is a pity, because if this movie was as good as it could have been, it would no doubt find its place among Spielberg's all-time greats.