Many of us like to reminisce about certain aspects of our childhood, but few of us have $40 million to spend on recreating these memories. Steven Spielberg is one of the few. His newest film, The Fabelmans, falls into the rapidly emerging genre in which directors tell semi-autobiographical versions of their youth. Though The Fabelmans is one of the most overtly self-mythologizing, it is also incredibly tender and satisfying.
Spielberg’s recent work has failed to live up to his numerous past classics, as his era of whimsical yet appropriately intense blockbusters seems to be a thing of the past. His contemporary work bounces back and forth from somber histories to uninspired studio-steered children’s films, for neither of which his directorial voice is appropriately suited. The former’s intensity is underscored by melodrama and immaturity, and the formulaic feeling of the latter renders Spielberg’s creative voice almost entirely unintelligible. The Fabelmans is the first film of his in well over a decade in which his directorial style is both unobscured and well-suited for the project.
Chronicling the maturing Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) as he navigates social dynamics, family secrets, and his emerging obsession for film, The Fabelmans serves as an honest and celebratory homage to classic cinema and to coming-of-age tales. The film concerns itself with reckoning with memory and the potential responsibility that falls upon storytellers. With crisp editing and production design, Spielberg’s crew of familiar creative companions craft an inviting environment in which to explore the infinite questions that come with adolescence and with creating art.
The Fabelmans’s performances, appealing pacing, and storytelling are its strongest features. Mitzi Fabelman’s (Michelle Williams) beautiful and empathetic evolution is well paired with Paul Dano’s subtle portrayal of Burt Fabelman. Judd Hirsch as Sammy’s mysterious and hilarious Yiddish-speaking Uncle Boris provides the most thorough and genuine of the film's performances, and his character incites a consistent questioning of what we owe each other through our art and our lives.
The meandering and episodic screenplay by Spielberg and Tony Kushner supplements its welcome sentimentality with generally tasteful comic gags. Spielberg clearly has a sense of humor about himself and his past films, and any self-congratulatory overzealousness in the myriad scenes of Sammy’s filmmaking is balanced with a humorous reflection on his creative and adolescent past. The Fabelmans never overestimates its importance or overemphasizes Spielberg’s current artistic status, making it widely appealing as opposed to preachy.
The hurdle at which The Fabelmans stumbles is the same one that Spielberg has been tripping over for nearly three decades. I am a fervent believer that the style of Spielberg’s populist cinema does not apply well to serious subject matter. No film is a better example of this idea than Schindler’s List. A story with a substantial amount of potential, the film severely abuses the memory of the event it tries to mourn. Spielberg’s jaunty and sentimental neatness is upsettingly out of place in a film set in the Holocaust, resulting in a kitschy movie that presents a godlike portrayal of a selfish Nazi industrialist who refrained from saving lives until he started losing money. Thirty years later, The Fabelmans — though largely comical, endearing, and sentimental — suffers from Spielberg’s inability to employ any depth when it attempts to condemn antisemitism. Sammy’s struggle with bigoted bullies is tackled from a sloppy and snarky perspective and is poorly incorporated with the tone of the rest of the movie. The resolution, albeit satisfying, does not contemplate antisemitism on any substantial axis and renders the subplot relatively unaffecting.
Despite the occasional pitfall, The Fabelmans is an overwhelmingly sweet and enjoyable narrative that is evidently deeply cared about by all of its creators. It drags at times and wobbles at others, but its hopeful and tender conclusion builds itself a semblance of intimacy and comfort.
OVERALL SCORE: 8/10
The Fabelmans was released on November 23 and is currently in US theaters.
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