The Fabelmans

Sammy Fabelman loves cinema. Together with his friends and family he makes small amateur films and dreams of becoming a director. But then, through his hobby, he uncovers a nasty secret from his loved ones that makes him rethink everything he's ever known. Steven Spielberg delivers a semi-autobiographical story that is moving, funny and above all believable. And while it's also nostalgic and melancholy, it never feels cloying. An honest and audience-friendly drama from a storyteller who understands his job damn well. (2022-11-24)

Those who love filmmaking will love The Fabelmans. Spielberg is still in superb form, and it's hardly a surprise that if anyone should tell his life story, it can only be him. A beautiful, sensitive, witty, and moving film that is undoubtedly one of the best of the year. When Spielberg retires, anyone watching this film (remembering all his blockbusters) will be able to tell that it was all worth it. (2023-01-11)

Steven Spielberg is back to what he does best: a sensitively told, character-driven family drama about the magic of discovering something magical, here personified by cinema itself. This two-and-a-half-hour film manages to be almost perfectly engrossing and absorbing, yet it has two creative decisions that leave me wondering. For one thing, I don't understand why the lead actor had to wear dark contact lenses for the entire film, it made his eyes look as dead as those of the shark in Jaws and I think it sabotaged an otherwise very eager performance by the young Gabriel LaBelle. And then the idea (spoiler) that a pompous anti-Semitic bullying asshole would, by the magic of the movie medium, go to his victim and not only apologise, but have an emotional breakdown over his own emptiness – the most naive and nauseating thing I've seen at the cinema this year. These two things are all the more infuriating because they could have been easily avoided. However, despite those reservations, I was satisfied, and especially in the short scenes, when veterans Judd Hirsch and David Lynch are given space and well-written roles, I had a contented smile on my face. (2022-12-07)

It’s no coincidence that such a beautiful film about people and filmmaking is an autobiographical statement by the creator of the most heartfelt works of cinema. The circle is closed, as the unique tenderness of the iconic filmmaking triumvirate of Spielberg + Kamiński + Williams merges with the content like never before. Everything led up to this. ___ The Fabelmans is the most comprehensively told family drama that I have ever seen. And even though no tragic events happen, it is also the most impactful family drama for me personally. It is a deeply felt depiction of the life events of childhood and youth in the smallest yet most essential details, embodied in an appropriately sensitive, surgically precise film narrative. A mosaic of fragments forming the personality of a man who, through pain and joy, became one with the film camera, which revealed the origins of his biggest (family) disappointment in his adolescence and helped him to gracefully resolve his problem with bullying in high school. That he later went on to make his mark on the artistic and social history of the world with that camera is another story. ___ The cinephilic dimension of The Fabelmans is a bonus added to the narrative about family values, which have always formed the essence of Spielberg’s work. Except here he has made it a key part of the story that’s even nicer than we could have wished for. The casting surprise in the epilogue and the last shot brought me to my knees and took me back to a place to which I feared contemporary cinema would never return. Steven forever ❤️ (2022-12-05)

An exquisite reminiscence of the childhood and adolescence of an ordinary middle-class family. Spielberg manages to conjure up smiles and tears, joy and sadness with an ease all his own, reminiscing a little of his childhood years when his enthusiasm for moving pictures seemed to be his everything, despite his family's complicated relationship. There's a bit of a problem with pacing and overlong running time, but that's all due to the consistent storytelling and coloring of the characters. The last scene is the best. (2023-02-13)