Film Review: "The Fabelmans" (2022).

"Capture every moment" with The Fabelmans. This semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Spielberg and Tony Kushner. A deeply personal portrait of a 20th century American childhood, Spielberg’s film is a cinematic memory of the forces, and family, that shaped the filmmaker’s life and career. A universal coming-of-age story about an isolated young man’s pursuit of his dreams, the film is an exploration of love, artistic ambition, sacrifice and the moments of discovery that allow us to see the truth about ourselves, and our parents, with clarity and compassion. Sammy Fabelman is devoted to filmmaking, an interest that is celebrated and championed by his artistic mother, Mitzi. Sammy’s successful, scientific father, Burt, supports Sammy’s work, but views it as an unserious hobby. Over the years, Sammy has become the de facto documentation of his family’s adventures, as well as the director of his increasingly elaborate amateur film productions starring his sisters and friends. By sixteen, Sammy is both the primary observer and archivist of his family story, but when his family moves west, Sammy discovers a heartbreaking truth about his mother that will redefine their relationship and alter the future for himself and his entire family.

In 1999, Spielberg said he had been thinking of directing a film about his childhood for some time. Titled I'll Be Home, the project was originally written by his sister Anne Spielberg. In 2002, Spielberg said he was nervous about making the film. In November 2022, Spielberg later revealed that his parents had also been "nagging" him to make a film about their lives prior to their deaths. In 2004, while working on Munich, Spielberg told Kushner his life story. In 2019, the eighty to ninety page plot outline for the film was worked on in during filming of West Side Story. In early October 2020, work on the screenplay for the film commenced, during the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and was completed in December 2020. The film would mar his first writing venture on a film since A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). Spielberg, at that time, felt that the climate caused by the pandemic convinced him that the time was now right to make the film. He gave drafts of the script to his sisters, Sue and Nancy, to ensure that their memories be included in the story and that the details in the film were portrayed as accurately as possible. In March 2021, the film was announced with Spielberg in the director's chair. In March 2021, Michelle Williams was cast to star as Mitzi Fabelman, the role inspired by Spielberg's mother Leah Adler, but with "an original voice." Spielberg himself had her in mind for the role after watching her performances in Blue Valentine (2010) and Fosse/Verdon (2019). Additionally, it was reported that Seth Rogen was cast to play Bennie Loewy, the role inspired by Bernie Adler, "the favorite uncle of young Spielberg". In early April, Paul Dano joined the cast as Burt Fabelman, the role inspired by Spielberg's father Arnold. In June, after a three-month search and over two-thousand contenders, Gabriel LaBelle was cast to portray the lead role, Sammy Fabelman, a young aspiring filmmaker based on Spielberg himself. In September 2022, during the film's world premiere, LaBelle revealed that he initially did not win the part of Sammy following his first audition but did upon receiving a callback three months afterward. On finally reading the script and learning the details about his character being a fictionalized version of Spielberg himself as a teenager for mostly the entire film. Additionally, Julia Butters and Sam Rechner were cast. Butters was cast as Reggie Fabelman, the role inspired by Spielberg's sister Anne. By mid July, Chloe East, Oakes Fegley, Isabelle Kusman, Jeannie Berlin, Judd Hirsch, Robin Bartlett, Gabriel Bateman, Nicolas Cantu, Gustavo Escobar, Lane Factor, Cooper Dodson, Stephen Matthew Smith, Keeley Karsten, Birdie Borria, Alina Brace, Sophia Kopera, and Mateo Zoryan Francis-DeFord, and Jonathan Hadary were added to the cast, the latter of whom ultimately having his scenes cut from the final film. In February 2022, it was announced David Lynch was cast in a then-undisclosed role, later revealed to be that of film director John Ford. In early November, during the Q&A, Spielberg revealed that it took three weeks to convince Lynch to be a part of the film, with Kushner's husband Mark Harris taking credit for suggesting Lynch to Spielberg, and Laura Dern calling Lynch numerous times to get him to commit. In response, Lynch said he would take it as long as there were bags of Cheetos on set as refreshments. He also requested that he be given his costume as Ford two weeks before filming his scene. 

At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in late September. Filming took place throughout Los Angeles, California in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the shoot, the cast gained access to home movies, photographs and recollections from Spielberg's family's past to learn what they were like and how to portray the fictionalized versions of them (the Fabelman family) on screen, while making them feel fresh and original. In addition, Dano ordered and built a crystal radio set to get the feeling of how Arnold Spielberg had around electronics. LaBelle also rewatched some of Spielberg's films, such as Empire of the Sun (1987) and constantly had conversations with Spielberg to learn more about his life in order to prepare for playing Sammy. The jewelry that Williams wore as part of the costumes for Mitzi Fabelman were in fact some of Spielberg's mother's, including a charm bracelet that had pictures of all four of her children. According to an interview she did for the Hollywood Insider at the TIFF premiere, Butters was gifted with Anne Spielberg's high school ring to wear while she played Reggie. For the scenes of Sammy filming his own 8mm films, Spielberg decided to have the character recreate the exact ones he made during his childhood, and worked with Kamiński to ensure that they were portrayed as accurately as possible, but with improvements in the camera angles. LaBelle's first two days on set involved a scene where Sammy and his friends film a recreation of Spielberg's World War II short film Escape to Nowhere (1961). The 8mm and 16mm camera props used in the film had real film inside them, with LaBelle being taught how to use the cameras so that what was shot with them on set can be developed for usage in the film, as well as how to cut and splice film stock using the editing machines and film projectors of the time period. LaBelle also got to keep the 8mm camera Sammy used to film the family camping trip and Escape to Nowhere short film as a souvenir after the completion of principal photography. To look the part of Sammy and make the character look almost similar to Spielberg's teenage appearance, LaBelle had his hair straightened and changed the way he stood and walked, as well as retrained his muscles to mimic Spielberg's smile. LaBelle was unaware of the casting of Lynch until the day the scene he had to do with him was filmed. He recalled that once Lynch came onto the set, it enabled him to embody Sammy and how he was feeling. The scene itself was written to historically match how the actual real-life encounter between Spielberg and Ford went down, with the latter's dialogue written exactly word-for-word. The last shot of the film, where the camera breaks the fourth wall and re-frames the horizon on the image of Sammy walking on the studio lot, was already in the script prior to filming. To recreate the three houses that Spielberg lived in during his childhood in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and Saratoga, California, production designer Rick Carter worked off floor plans that the director sketched from memory and then took artistic license with the spaces to fit the emotional mindset of Sammy. Carter and set decorator Karen O'Hara also worked off photos and memories that Spielberg and his three sisters provided. All of the house interiors were built on soundstages.

The performances by the cast are part of the reason why it works so well. I can't think of a better cast of actors that pulls off such emotional depth. 

Spielberg has given audiences dozens of great films over the years, but no movie has captured the power of cinema quite like this film. Spielberg has crafted with warmth and humor a simple film that works so superbly on so many levels that it will surely attract masses of moviegoers from all demographics. With a touching relationship at the core of its compelling narrative, along with a brilliant score, the film remains one of Spielberg's most beloved films. One of the purest and most emotionally direct of all American movies, with not a whit of adult condescension nor any self-protecting irony, which might be why it hits grown-ups harder than kids.

Simon says The Fabelmans receives:

Also, see my review for West Side Story.