There was a period of movie announcements where two projects kept cropping up. Neither were anything new to us, but there was such a glut of announcements that it did make one slightly wary. These two gluts were announcements regarding a return of “movies about movies” and a series of film-makers now choosing to make films about their childhoods. As a matter of fact an acquittance whose movie taste I trust a lot tweeted at the time (I’ll paraphrase); “I’m sure all these movies about movies are going to really great, but can it stop for awhile?” Well he was right, they more or less for me have all been really great and one of the most prestigious of these current releases was Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans which managed to be both a chronicle of his childhood and a film indeed about the magic of movies. But the joy of The Fabelmans is just his absolute resistance to form and instead an interest in peculiarity and presenting truth and at times impressionism rather than some simple and dull love letter to cinema or for that matter some tired cradle to grave feature. The Fabelmans is wonderfully so much more than either of those descriptors could paint it.
Spielberg is of course a master director, but with this deeply personal film (a very thinly veiled fictionalising of his own childhood and his relationship with his mother and father), but now with this film paired with his West Side Story collaborator, the brilliant Tony Kushner, he is now a screenwriter of great talent aswell. How the collaboration worked is not known to me, but the screenplay that came of it really is a complex and beautiful piece of writing that veers more and more into a vignette style, than a consistent narrative. Of course there is the extended through-line of Sam Fabelman and his relationship with his mother and father, however the film is instead more a collection of remembrances and short stories that all in all add up to tell the tale of Sam’s burgeoning adoration for film-making and how that was ran parallel and was some ways informed by his parent’s divorce. The film is a rich text and Kushner and Spielberg’s work on the screenplay is the core of the film’s complexities. Spielberg as a director doesn’t however rest on his laurels and repeatedly makes those major and minor visual flourishes that keep him head and shoulders above so many of the other directors who have come and gone during the span of his career. The entire film has this beautiful sheen to it, brought to us by the stunning work of cinematographer and frequent Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kaminski, however the film itself time and time and again rejects the rose tint and presents a loose tale of collected truths, with all the humour, horror and life that comes along the way. It meanders, it diverts, it finds rhythm and humour and romance, then with great pain has moments of intense stillness – as always its an incredibly well crafted piece of film, which is of course no surprise. If anything the biggest joy is that the film returns Spielberg away from the computer effects that have marred him a few times in recent years and instead brings him back to the tactile. In regards to frequent Spielberg collaborators the film boasts once more a spare and deliberate score by John Williams, whose mark is not constant throughout but is felt deeply when it hits.
Once the film
gets into full swing we have the lead role of Sam Fabelman played by Gabriel
LaBelle in a real star making turn. As with the rest of the feature, no punches
are pulled and LaBelle’s performance is one of both charm, solemness and pain,
aswell as an awkwardness in abundace, never though getting in the way of a wry
smile and charm when it comes to the humour and romance of the feature. The
film contains multitudes and it’s mostly upon LaBelle’s shoulders to take us
through, as the rest of the ensemble all do sensational work, but are by design
‘in and out’ figures who can come in on one specific tone, blow us all away and
then depart. These range from Seth Rogen with a really well judged and
naturalistic dramatic performance, perfect as the character he’s cast as. Then
Judd Hirsch, who would not have been my ‘Fabelmans one scene Best
Supporting Actor nominee’, who is superb as a jolt of bizarre and traditional
energy at one of he films many diverging points. However my nomination for ‘Fabelmans
one scene Best Supporting Actor nominee’ would of course have to go to
David Lynch as John Ford, who with a few lines, a few movements, a few lights
of a cigar, manages to completely blow us away just in time for the credits. Among
the younger cast there are many standouts also; Sam Rechner and Chloe East both
enter the film at a pivotal stage and really offer sublime work that sends the
film on a very interesting path for a selection of really great scenes. All
three actresses playing Sam’s younger sisters are also just as brilliant as the
rest of the ensemble; that of Julia Butters, Keely Karsten and Sophia Kopera.
It really is an ensemble of great work which flits between showy and un-showy,
making for a really great piece of ensemble film. However there are two other
chief performances that hold the film together and really are two of the more
powerful turns of the year for me. Michelle Williams and Paul Dano, both are
sensational as Sam’s parents and in their juxtaposition of loud and soft,
insular and exterior give two dynamic and visceral turns that lead the film so
incredibly down its path and so beautifully project the pain and humanity of
the tale Spielberg has taken to making with this really solid film.
A beautiful, complex and rich 9/10 film that repeatedly zags and subverts rather than following any fashion of dull formula that this film could so easily be reduced to; this is a “love letter to cinema”, but is also a deconstruction on the way it infiltrate a life, and yes it is “a director telling the story of their childhood”, however without any such hesitance on truth or glamorising, nor for that matter melo-dramatizing. Spielberg has in his late career once more made a stunningly marvellous film that can’t help but be admired for all it does and all it doesn’t do for that matter. A touching, effecting and very entertaining drama with a heart as strong as its complex truths and dramas.
P.S. Disclaimer as always, of course this film hit me multiple times with its glimpses into my own life, but does not deter from my feelings about how great this film is. But on a personal note, I have never seen reflected on screen a better representation of the disassociation that can occur when a film-maker is viewing a real life situation. With a few camera moves and an edit and a fade Spielberg managed to bring yet another beautiful image to the screen that I never expected.
P.P.S Was the name just a little too much? Beautiful perfect title, but maybe a little too much?
- - Thomas Carruthers
0 Comments