2022 will go down in history as one of the most abundant years for “love letters to filmmaking” movies. Nope, Empire of Light, Babylon, and of course, The Fabelmans. With Steven Spielberg’s outing, I felt a profound sense of love and affection towards the art form that felt so personal and well-helmed in every sense.
SYNOPSIS: A coming-of-age story about a young man’s discovery of a shattering family secret and an exploration of the power of movies to help us see the truth about each other and ourselves.
What amazes me about Steven Spielberg is he’s 75 years old, and still directs his films with such a sense of adolescent wonder and whim no matter the subject. Here, taking in his own personal life, and recounting it through the lens of filmmaking, I found myself caught up in the wonderful paradox this movie creates of storytelling as a language.
Gabriel LaBelle gives a career-launching performance, and Paul Dano and Michelle Williams are both respectively great in their roles, even if Williams comes off a bit too floaty in her delivery at times. Something I admired greatly about The Fabelmans was its ability to characterize every single one of its massive cast of characters in one way or another and humanize them. The tender moments where you see true reflections and nuances of each character were by far some of my favorite moments in the film, alongside the amazing amateur filmmaking sequences that made me want to run out of the theater and film the first thing I saw.
The cinematography of the film is so intentional and so elegant in the way it portrays the characters. Spielberg’s now characterized overly lit style definitely works in the confines of the 50s and 60s aesthetic this film is trying to pull off and adds a real shine to every moment in the film.
The ending scene is probably one of my favorites in recent memory, it takes the overall concept of the film as a whole, and really dives into its own meta-intentions in all senses of the word. It’s funny, it’s cute, and just like all classic Spielberg films, it evokes a sense of wonder and charm that no other director has been able to capture in the same light.
The daunting runtime of the film is definitely felt at times for me personally, and the pacing was a little lopsided. Act two does feel like it's dipping very heavily into the modes and tropes of the typical coming-of-age story, but Spielberg handles it with such professional grace that he could make a mediocre scene on paper look like a masterpiece. Sometimes, the film gets a little carried away in escaping from the confinements of the story it's telling with different flashes of action, and in one surprising but short scene, horror. These deviations, while well-intentioned, messed with the overall tone of the film ever so slightly.
There are times when the design of The Fabelmans feels overstuffed, but it always manages to come out on top and fire on all cylinders. It’s funny, it’s emotional, it’s awe-inspiring, and it feels crafted with such undeniable love for the craft of filmmaking that I’ve yet to see so effortlessly incorporated elsewhere.
8/10
Comments