This Time, It's Personal

Steven Spielberg has been weaving elements of his youth into his films practically since he began directing movies. But it's only now, after more than 50(!) years in the business that he's made a movie that's fully and explicitly inspired by his upbringing: The Fabelmans.

A major recurring theme of Spielberg's career has been separation and divorce (especially in his films of the 70s and early 80s). So of course, that's a big element of his semi-autobiographical movie. The other element is just as expected: his own love of movies, and his journey toward a career making them. The Fabelmans doesn't do the smoothest job of blending these two things together smoothly. And weirdly, this is sometimes to the movie's advantage.

Right at the end of almost every year, some movie celebrating the art form of movies themselves arrives to excite the Oscar voting base. Because The Fabelmans is only in part the story of a young man falling in love with movies, it's far less a work of Hollywood self-aggrandizement than you might expect. The Fabelmans hardly suggests that movies are (or should be) a universal love; they are explicitly this one person's passion. Other characters in the movie have their own loves, and encourage or discourage the main character accordingly.

Of course, dirge-like tales of a decaying families are perennial Oscar favorites too. But The Fabelmans is also only in part that story. Because the main character has another part of his life that is profoundly joyful, the movie isn't relentlessly heavy. It has plenty of levity throughout. Add to that the fact that Steven Spielberg isn't trying to perform a hit job on his late parents, and the movie at times feels quite light and brisk.

The craft of the filmmaking here is impeccable as always for Spielberg. The cast is great: Gabriel LaBelle is a wonderful find to anchor the movie as Sammy, and Michelle Williams gets to play bigger than life as Sammy's mother. Paul Dano and Seth Rogen are both solid in their roles. And Judd Hirsch and David Lynch each make the most of glorified cameos; Hirsch nails the key emotional scene at the core of the movie, while Lynch makes his single scene -- the final one of the movie -- into one of the best endings of the year. (Plus, Spielberg's literal final shot is one of the most fun and clever things in his entire filmography.)

But while I can appreciate all that on an intellectual level, The Fabelmans sailed right by me on an emotional level. For this surely being Spielberg's most personal movie ever, I was surprised how little I was moved by it. Maybe the parade of Easter eggs throughout hurt in that regard. The shot reminding everyone of E.T. reminded me of how much more deeply that movie made me care. The nod to Raiders of the Lost Ark played for a bigger laugh in that movie. The evocation of Close Encounters of the Third Kind made me aware of how much more powerful that movie was in portraying a father's obsession, and so on.

The Fabelmans is still a decent movie. Spielberg just understands moviemaking on such a deep level that the "floor" on one of his movies is still quite high. But at a grade B, it would never place on a Top 10 List of Spielberg films -- and it just missed out on my Top 10 List of movies, generally, for 2022.