Swithin wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2023, 10:22 am
Some spoilers ahead...
I just watched
The Fabelmans (2022), Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical coming of age film. The film deals with young Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle), who becomes obsessed with making movies after his parents Burt and Mitzi (Paul Dano and Michelle Williams) take the six-year old to see
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). The film deals with Sammy's increasing obsession with filmmaking, whilst at the same time focusing on the drama of his family life, particularly the tension between his parents and their friend Bennie (Seth Rogen), with whom Mitzi may be having an affair. (Sammy learns of the affair through the lens, as he's shooting a family film. Reminds me of
Blow-Up, a photographer discovering something in addition to what he's shooting.)
I liked the film, with reservations. Unlike almost everyone, I did not like the performances of Dano and Williams, and I found many of the other characters to be flat stereotypes (particularly Jeannie Berlin in the small role as the grandmother, a role which could have been truer to type had it been written by Clifford Odets or even Fran Drescher. Judd Hirsch, however, gives a compelling performance as aged Uncle Boris). Spielberg wrote the screenplay with Tony Kushner, whom I've always felt to be a lesser writer, in terms of character roundness, than he's given credit for. A dinner scene in the movie reminds me of a dinner scene in Kushner's play,
Caroline or Change, in which an extended argumentative Jewish family behave in a way that would make Odets cringe. (Kushner, whom I've never met, lives across the street from me. I have enjoyed his work on stage, despite what I see as his inability to create what E.M. Forster might call "round" characters, particularly in the supporting roles.)
In addition to dealing with the family issues, the film deals with anti-Semitism and bullying, in somewhat cliched ways. The segments of the movie that I did like, deal with Sammy's yearning and attempts to become a filmmaker. Gabriel LaBelle is fine in the lead role. One of the funniest scenes features Sammy's seduction by a religious Christian girl, who seems to be attracted to Sammy because, like Jesus, he's a "cute Jewish boy."
Those of us who love movies may find that the
The Fabelmans final scene is among the best. Young Sammy is taken to meet his idol, John Ford, beautifully played by David Lynch. The cranky old Ford asked Sammy to identify the horizon on two of the paintings on the wall of Ford's office. The very last shot of the film shows Sammy leaving Ford's office, exhilarated. As the movie ends, the horizon in the shot moves, in a way that Ford would have approved of. (Btw, the scene with Ford is evidently an accurate depiction of what really happened.)
So, for me,
The Fabelmans is decent, with many flaws. Though I've enjoyed many of Spielberg's films, he's no John Ford.