The Fabelmans is Steven Spielberg’s most personal film, an autobiographical account of a young Jewish boy, his family and his early discovery of the power of cinema.
(And we have five double passes to give away to you, dear reader; details at the end of this review!)
Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-Deford) is six when his parents Burt (Paul Dano) and Mitzi (Michelle Williams) take him to see his very first movie, Cecil B. deMille’s The Greatest Show On Earth.
He is transfixed by the film’s spectacular train crash, where two engines collide, derailing carriages, shredding equipment and injuring many people.
At home Sammy horrifies his father by recreating the crash, and filming it, destroying the new train set Burt has bought him.Undeterred, Sammy becomes increasingly absorbed in making films, using a camera his mother has bought him. She encourages his film-making; his father tells him to snap out of it.
Mitzi is the artistic one, a former concert pianist who gave up her career to become a home-maker. Burt is an engineer, whose increasingly successful career means a series of moves for the family.
When Burt moves the family to California the teenage Sammy (now played by Gabriel LaBelle) is subjected to vicious anti-Semitism in high school. He also has a passionate love affair with a devout Christian classmate, Monica (Chloe East), which produces some hilarious moments as she simultaneously tries to convert him and seduce him.
Sammy has a crisis when he films a family picnic which includes his father’s best friend, “Uncle Benny” (Seth Rogen). While editing the film Sammy discovers a revealing scene between Mitzi and Benny which fractures the relationship between mother and son and eventually between husband and wife.
This is Spielberg’s 33rd film, with a script by Tony Kushner. It won him the best director award from the critics’ group National Board of Review and is tipped for an Academy Award nomination.
Spielberg, 76, is the most commercially successful film director of all time. His films have grosssed more than $10 billion worldwide.
The Fabelmans opens on January 3 at Luna Leederville, Luna Outdoor, Luna On SX and Camelot Outdoor.
Watch the trailer…
We have five double passes to give away to The Fabelmans. To enter our easy contest, just email us at info@thestarfish.com.au telling us in a sentence why you’d like to see the film. Be sure to include your address (which we will never pass on to anyone) so we can post passes out to our winners. Good luck!
Looking for an entertaining movie, just saw the Menu with Ralph Fiennes, it was so gruesome. Ralph and Anya Taylor Joy are fabulous actors but the movie was not for the faint hearted. Then I went to see A Man Called Otto featuring Tom Hanks another favourite Actor but I was exhausted and the movie very slow initially, so I did a granny, as my daughter unkindly pointed out, and fell asleep!!
Should offer interesting insights into Spielberg’s life and artistic self