When the horizon's in the middle, it's boring as shit

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 films of 2023

#16 : The Fabelmans

One thread of Steven Spielberg’s career in his autumn years has been a yearning to wander through his own past. Ready Player One paid tribute to a pop culture period when he was king, and West Side Story allowed him to play in a storyworld he’d loved as a kid. The Fabelmans, though, is the closest he’s come to a proper cinematic autobiography. Mitzi and Bert Fabelman take their boy Sammy to see The Greatest Show On Earth at the pictures, and light a fire in him to tell stories of his own. Soon he’s making 8mm movies, and after the family moves to Arizona and traumas start to pull them apart he seeks more and more solace in them. It’s a lovingly done coming-of-age movie suffused with what we’re obliged to call ‘That Spielberg Magic’, its sweetness undercut with real, piercing sadness.

This is one I wouldn't have bothered with otherwise - I'm sure it'll be well done, but in a "I don't really care" kinda way.

It's very much a coming-of-age movie as young Sammy Fabelman finds that movies are more fun than real life. Some of the stories are pretty standard, some less so but it does, as Empire says have some "real, piercing sadness" there. I don't really feel the need to give you any more detail but it does have a somewhat unbelievable ending - which is, of course, (mostly, probably) true.

Gabriel LaBelle is great as Sammy Fabelman - he gives us a good mix of practical and creative, a wise head on young shoulders. Paul Dano and Michelle Williams are also great as his parents - I wouldn't have recognised Paul Dano, but when I looked it up and saw that it was him, he is actually quite recognisable. Seth Rogan is also surprisingly good in this in an initially lightweight role which turns out to have a bit more heft to in than you expect. And, right at the end, David Lynch pops up in a short but impressive cameo.

It is, as you'd expect, very well shot with excellent retro features - no detail is ignored and I really think I'd have got along well in 50s California, as long as I didn't have to go to school with all the jocks. The camera is obviously always looking at whatever it wants to show you - I'm sure an awful lot of thought (and experience) went into it all.

But - did I care? Well - I cared more about it than I was expecting to and there are some very touching and raw scenes in there. But it is, both generally as a concept and particularly at specific times, extremely self-indulgent - you can argue that old Steven has earned it, but it does make some sections of the film somewhat longer than they strictly need to be. I say somewhat, but I reckon you could easily lose an hour of the two and half on display here without overly affecting anything.

I'd say it's a good film, but not a great film - I'm kinda glad I watched it, but I'd have been absolutely fine without doing so. It's a decent enough watch but overly long - you can't help but feel that anyone else wouldn't have been given the chance to make it, but there's certainly a lot of acting and film-making skill on display. If you fancy it, then it's available to rent in all the usual places - in my opinion it's worth a watch, but not a must-see.

#17 - A fine film indeed
#15 - An impressive piece of film-making