The Fabelmans (2022)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Michelle Williams, Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano

Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

So, the legend himself Steven Spielberg makes a movie about making movies. We’ve seen bits of this already in ‘Super 8’. Now he turns the ‘Super 8’ idea into a coming of age family movie. But ‘The Fabelmans’ was so uneven in its narration that I’m not sure what to make of it.

The film starts off introducing the Jewish Fabelman family. There’s the Dad, Burt (Paul Dano), who is a brilliant scientist and inventor. His wife is Mitzi (Michelle Williams), who is a pianist. Then there are the children, of which only Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) is noteworthy. And then there’s the family friend, Bennie (Seth Rogen), who turns out to be more than just a friend…

From the very first time a young Sammy went to the movies with his parents, he became interested in making movies. This is a passion he soon pursued, and he would make movies and show them at school, to great praise from the audience. Does this sound like the life and times of Steven Spielberg?

This is a very, very long movie, and a great deal of the movie’s runtime is made up by Sammy making movies, and then showing them to family and friends. Why this takes up so much screen time is beyond reason, as this does not contribute to the film in any way. Cool, we understand, he’s making movies at a young age, but do we actually want to see everything of what he does? Just a hint of it would have sufficed. We get the picture.

Judd Hirsch stars as Mitzi’s uncle, Boris, whom her deceased mother warned her against in a dream. I was expecting so much from this character – especially also since Judd Hirsch received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor – but he was in this long film for only about 10 minutes and all he did was talk to Sammy. That’s it! When he left the next morning, he was never seen again. What was the point? The film would not have played out any differently had this character not been in the movie at all.

When the family moved to California and Sam was being bullied at school, I completely lost interest. It felt like a completely different movie and even the narration transitioned from interesting drama to uninteresting comedy – complete with religious blasphemy. What the hell?

The most interesting characters with the promise of intrigue, were Mitzi and Bennie. No offense, Mr Spielberg, but the film had the potential to take so many interesting turns. Instead, the final act was primarily aimed at a teen demographic, and an uninteresting one at that. The horizon was in the middle. (If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know what this means).

Yes, the performances were very good, and ‘The Fabelmans’ is beautifully filmed. Unfortunately, it was just way overlong, and ultimately a bit boring towards the end.

‘The Fabelmans’ received 286 award nominations (so far), winning 25 (so far). It received 7 Oscar nominations for Best Directing, Best Original Score, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design. At the box office, the film only earned $30 million on a $40 million budget.

Would I watch it again? No.