The Fabelmans (2023) Dir. Steven Spielberg

"Art is our drug".

Director Steven Spielberg has often centred his films around dysfunctional family dynamics - from Indiana Jones’ father-son conflict to Richard Dreyfus dumping his family to hop on a UFO in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

But here he (finally) turns his camera to his own tumultuous family life in The Fabelmans - a semi-autobiographical story loosely based on the filmmaker’s upbringing.

We open in 1952 as a young boy Sammy is taken to the cinema by his parents (Michelle Williams and Paul Dano in roles based on Spielberg’s own mother and father). Mitzi and Burt are shocked by the lurid images on screen of a train crash but from this moment, Sammy is mesmerised and after being given a camera, recreates the scene with a toy choo-choo.

Going full steam ahead, the boy’s obsession sees him then create a toilet paper version of The Mummy and his own mother, whose artistic passion is piano playing, encourages him to play make-believe. Yet his father is an engineer, far more focused on technical knowledge and facts and figures. I wonder where Spielberg got his emotional and creative heart combined with the technical skills needed for filmmaking, eh? Obviousness 101.

Clearly shaping Spielberg from the start, The Fabelmans utilises reflections and windshields as windows into the world like a movie screen itself, whilst car headlights become obvious ciphers for spotlights. And projectors whirr away constantly, giving the film a semi-permanent buzz in addition to the soulful piano-playing and John Williams’ excellent warm score.

After moving the family to Phoenix for Burt’s work, we jump forward in time where a 16-year old Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) is developing his camera skills with his Boy Scout friends but there is a tension between the differing goals of mother and father for their son. 

After Mitzi’s mother passes away, Burt encourages his son to make a happy highlight reel of a recent campfire trip to cheer her up. But during the editing, he notices his mum’s hidden relationship with his father’s best friend Bennie (Seth Rogen) causing further disruption.

The film is kinda schmaltzy - well it’s Spielberg - but that’s not really the problem. It’s so damn tame with little bite. Not that there isn’t a good story here but it’s safe to the point of being too bland. The performances however are great. Williams steals the show as the tortured Mitzi - passionate for music, frustrated with life and struggling at times to maintain the image of an ideal family.

And you can play “spot-the-Spielberg” too, with nods to E.T. bikes to Indiana Jones’ Scout uniform in The Last Crusade. Although it’s surprising how much influence the western genre had on the young boy without Spielberg himself ever going on to make one. Yet.

The family move once again, this time to California, and Sammy feels the wrath of anti-semitic taunts from school bullies but does form a relationship with a girl called Monica. Yet the school attacks continue and his home life is upended with divorce finally on the cards for his parents.

Sadly though, for me, the film suffers from the same issues plaguing most of Spielberg’s recent films. It’s honourable. Technically perfect. And shows a filmmaking flair you won’t see elsewhere. However, with a 151-minute runtime, it sits higher up (but still comfortably) within the list of the other somewhat flavourless films Spielberg has been making for a decade. “Life is not like the movies” says one character. I mean, give me a break.

Does anyone think the dull animation of The BFG, the tight but unimaginative The Post, the awful CGI-fest of Ready Player One and the musical remake West Side Story really stack up against any of his earlier work? No. I don’t think so either.

And the same is true here. Maybe the expectation is too high. It’s definitely a personal piece with many positive attributes but many years ago I would be shocked at a Spielberg box office bomb. Nowadays? Not so sure. People will blame it on streaming, Marvel or whatever. Sadly though, veering from moving and intimate prestige film to indulgent vanity project, maybe The Fabelmans simply doesn’t connect and despite its focus on the “power of imagination”, I ultimately left imagining a better film that is far more engaging and far less self-therapy.

★★★

3/5

Michael Sales