Les Fabelman

It's watching Steven Spielberg grow up from a child terrified by the train crash in THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, to an adolescent film maker. He's pretty up front about the family issues and his parents' break up. I suspect he has realized that being an adult is a tough thing and is willing to forgive.

At 150 minutes, it should feel self indulgent, but it never does, thanks to terrific performances by Michelle Williams as the mother and Paul Dano as the father. No one seems to be acting, which is half the Spielberg magic. There are also great cameos by Judd Hirsch as the profane uncle who was a lion tamer, and David Lynch as John Ford.

Some of the characters seem sketchily drawn, particularly the sisters, but that serves to emphasize Miss Williams, Dano, and Gabriel LaBelle as the Steven Spielberg character. Spielberg and his frequent collaborator Tony Kushner, have drawn a fine portrait of a Jewish post-war family, when things were supposed to be so very bland... but really, people were living their own odd lives.

This semi-autobiographical film centres around Sammy Fabelman who is transfixed by the first movie he sees at age 6 and develops a passion for film making. Other themes explored with variable depth and success include the fracturing marriage of his parents, bullying and anti-semitism at high school, young love and coming of age, and selfishness in general.

The movie is way too long and felt a little boring in the first 45minutes. It's nicely shot and well directed as you would expect, but the script is patchy and while the acting is generally excellent, the performances of Paul Dano and in particular Michelle Williams as Sammy's parents felt too affected and a little contrived - at times I felt I was watching filming on the set of a TV sitcom. I wonder still if this was deliberately instructed by Spielberg, but for me it doesn't work.

Gabriel Labelle is the best as the teenage Sammy and Judd Hirsch is superb in a cameo as Uncle Boris. John Williams as always provides a perfect score and the visuals are superb.

Overall it's worth seeing for a little insight into Spielberg's childhood but there is an unsatisfactory feel to the film as a whole. I think it could have been so much better.

When I first found out that Steven was making a movie about his life my first reaction was "wow, that's a conceited thing to do" so, I really wanted to dislike this film even before watching.

So, I skipped it at the theaters, did read some reviews and there were a lot of mixed ones. Watched the trailers and I admit those made it look half good. I figured I'd just wait till it streaming then I'd give it a go.

This afternoon I did just that, sat down in my rocking chair and watched 'the Fabelmans' and after it had ended and the credits were rolling my first thought was 'I apologize Steven'

I now know that it wasn't out of some conceited place or Steven trying to pay tribute to his own career. Instead it's a film about his family and it's dysfunctions and milestones that would eventually lead Steven to be the wonderful filmmaker we all love.

It's obvious now that Steven was the only one that could of written and directed this film.

Now, I can understand if there's questions on 'why' he made this film. Why expose his family's dirty laundry? Why stir up controversial moments but all these things led to Steven becoming the filmmaker he is.

In the end I was very pleasantly surprised by this film. I laughed, I was aggravated and at times very moved and inside all of those emotions we have tidbits on Steven falling in love with filmmaking. It's always present in the film but really it's not the focus. It's his family, the love he has for them and those struggles to keep it all together.

Good job Steven and thank you for such a wonderful career and so many great memories you have given to me and my family.

Lynch's last role, that's why I wanted to see it. For some reason, the film didn't get carried away at the release. I like to make mistakes and discover such amazing paintings after a while.

A movie about cinema and love for it.

Throughout the life of the main character, the movie goes along with him to one degree or another. At first, it amazes him as a viewer, but very soon he starts filming it himself. If in childhood it could be called a hobby, then it develops further to the vocation of a lifetime.

He makes short films, then full-fledged films, which, although they are shot for his own money and shown only to the participants in the filming, still touch the audience.

In fact, each film shot inside the film reflects the gradual development of the hero as a director and personality.

He is going through a drama in his family, relationships with peers and a girlfriend, but only cinema and the craving for it as the meaning of life helps to overcome all this and eventually succeed.

Also, the film is beautifully shot in terms of technical components, and every acting job pleases the eye and you, as a viewer, empathize with all the characters. They are prescribed and you believe in their problems.

There is a tendency these last years for directors to create movies about their love of movies. This movie is Spielberg's attempt, and I can confirm that it's pretty well achieved. You can feel the "true story" in the ways in which this coming-of-age story avoids melodramatic teenage cliches and tropes. The protagonist is simply a good guy. There are no real antagonists except... I guess a couple of bullies...? It's a story that simply proves Spielberg's unmatched proficiency in the language of cinema: the pacing, the directing, is very refined and well-crafted, there's a lot of sentimentality that is efficiently conveyed and the visuals are always engaging in one way or another.

Spielberg is a weird director, one that basically is simply very good at doing what he does, he talks the language of movies, Hollywood movies. He's one of those producers that turns every pop song into a hit. He doesn't have a strong sense of story, he lives and breaths in the Hollywood mainstream, and the movie portrays this very well, it shows how he is inspired by action movies, or epic movies, any entertaining story. His alter ego in the film is a very normal lead character, a very Hollywood-type of character. The best moments in the story are the interaction with his family, his complex relationship with his mother (really beautifully performed). I don't find a lot else to say, really. The only nitpick I have to offer is that the main character wears these extremely distracting brown contact lenses (I suppose to make his eyes look "genetically accurate) and I don't understand how necessary that was. The movie is simply a very conventionally well told story. Also the Lynch cameo is admittedly a moving tribute both to him and to his character of John Ford. It's slow in parts but not grating, some moments are chuckle-worthy, some are moving. It's a testament to Spielberg's insane versatility and his ability to just serve the medium of Hollywood films. I'm probably going to forget this movie in a while, but I will gladly revisit it. It's a cute movie, very cozy and feel-good, a nice Christmas family watch.