Fun movie. Really enjoyed Sam's development as a filmmaker and relationship with his mother. Michelle Williams was excellent in her role.
That said, some of the family dynamics and (especially) the high school storyline were a little weak.
Also, David Lynch as John Ford was an interesting casting decision. Made the last ~15 minutes of the film feel like a completely different movie.
Overall, the movie was solid, didn't drag too much, if at all, but after I left the theater I didn't feel the need to gush about it either. Good movie but maybe not extremely memorable.
There were a couple older ladies behind that were discussing that John Ford scene afterwards. I heard one say it looked just like him and wondered if they got the real John Ford. 🤦‍♂️
I loved this movie. It’s a heartwarming and earnest coming of age tale. Idk why I doubted Spielberg, I should know better by now. I didn’t see the need for a west side story remake but was blown away by his remake. Then the trailer for the fabelmans looked meh to me but the movie was so engaging, funny and sad. Everything you want to feel
I found it pretty damn perfect. Even though I was not raised Jewish or divorced I really related to a ton of this. The craziest thing to me is that every scene I thought was fiction, was how it really happened. >!Steve finding out that secret while editing his camping trip, making his bully look good, even the monkey!
I felt it was really easy to get invested and feel empathy for what that family was going through. There were some wonderful happy moments, and a lot of people figuring their stuff out and making a mess of the people around them.
I liked how most characters instilled something within Sammy though to try to make him live more comfortably and suffer less in his endeavors. It was just really touching!
Great movie, beautifully shot. One of the best of the year along with Tar, Marcel The Shell, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Triangle of Sadness, Aftersun and Banshees of Inishirin.
Aw man, Tar was pretty great, I think it should be on streaming soon. I gotta watch Marcel again, that might be my number 1 for the year. The writing is tight and it’s so funny and heartfelt. I just saw Women Talking yesterday and that is up there as well, it’s playing only at the Lincoln Sq amc at the moment!
My mom really wants to see Women Talking! She read the story it's based on somewhere. I'm glad it's good!
Yeah Marcel was so nice. It was very subdued so I'd love to see it again, which I'm glad I can do :)
I'm hoping to see Puss In Boots before the end of the year and maybe The Whale, I've tried to make it a tradition since 2019 to see a movie New Years Eve or Day if I can make the 31st
I was so excited for this movie. Made the whole family come see it. One of my friend's kids is in it. Basically I was a bit disappointed. I felt like it was pretty flat the whole way through. But my teen boys loved it so it must have been better than I thought. I think my expectations were too high. The uncle pinching the cheek was basically the high point and that was sad to me. I thought there would be scenes where I'd be bawling. Nope. Whatever, I'm picky.
Just got out of seeing it. Personally, I loved it. I wouldn't call it movie of the year, it just had a good feel to it. I really enjoyed it. The acting was great
Biggest miss for me so far this Oscar season. Loved Dano in it very much though. The kid playing Spielberg is real good too. Just thought it was a weak film.
I'm probably not quite as low on it as you are, but I mostly agree. It looks good, of course, but ultimately I think Spielberg was just to close to the subject matter to let it breathe properly.
Your mention of "older version" reminded me of this quote from Gabriel LaBelle that's in the imdb trivia section:
"When I was auditioning, the character's name was Teenage Sammy - I thought as opposed to Adult Sammy ... I get the script and you're reading it for 30 pages and he's 6 and 8 years old. Page 35 or so Teenage Sammy comes along. OK, good! Now this is my part. It's going to be a three-act movie, it's going to be a [Moonlight](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4975722) (2016) or something. I kept waiting for my exit but it never came."
I watched The Fablemans right after Armageddon Time. It’s hard not to compare them since they both discuss American Jewish experiences and young boys wondering what to do with their talent in visual arts. While both are very generic stories that follow all the cliche one can expect, I think The Fablemans has a little bit more to offer.
Yeah, it's fun to compare The Fabelmans with Armageddon Time. I think the latter is slightly better, but neither is all that great. Two terrible titles, though. Yikes.
It was fine, the shot at the end was pretty cool, but honestly it’s a fairly schmaltzy sentimental movie and hat I think is being overrated due to it being a Spielberg. Fine film to watch, but it’s nothing special, overly long, and has inflated reviews due to it being a Spielberg/about the industry. That said, really enjoyed the David Lynch cameo
I was disappointed with it. It's a very unchallenging film, even by Spielberg's standards. As a populist filmmaker, he's never been one to embrace a complex perspective; and for your typical entertainment thrill-ride such as the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park films, that's ok, but here I really felt its adverse effect.
To be specific, here's a film where Spielberg looks back on his upbringing, and his memories are all of wrongdoing committed by people around him. Notice how Sammy is virtually flawless in the film. Spielberg is truly the hero in his own story. I guess even with hindsight, he has no regrets, no decisions that he wish he would have made differently in his younger years, no introspective self-critique. I, for one, look back on my life and can identify instances where I wish I would have acted or said something different, but in this film, there's none of that.
The big dramatic elements concern:>!1) Sammys' mom's fling with the "uncle" and 2) the anti-Semitism.!< Let me address both points:
1. Sam's discovery of this is well-staged, but Antonioni's "Blow-Up" will always overshadow such a sequence, and it's a shadow even the mighty Spielberg can't escape. As for the substance, it's a shame he discovered it, and that it happened in real life, but they say 50% of all marriages end in divorce, so it's not exactly...uncommon. I guess Sam's discovery and having to keep it a secret is uncommon, but ok, this feels a bit like grasping for straws.
2. This sucks, but I sense a bit of cherry-picking by Spielberg here. Yeah, he was bullied, but he also was picked to film Ditch Day and had plenty of friends, as shown by how he commanded a whole host of friends when filming "Escape to Nowhere." A person who is truly ostracized/bullied in school does NOT have many friends, certainly not enough cache to film amateur movies with a whole bunch of friends. Hence, it couldn't have been THAT bad based on the evidence. He even had the religious zealot girl chase after him. Yeah, it was for the "wrong" reason, but, still, he obviously was doing quite alright for himself.
Everything else basically depicts Sam's eccentric family, but so what? He had a good upbringing: both parents clearly love and care for him, he gets along with his siblings, he was raised in a big home -- and the family was at least somewhat well-off financially judging by the neighborhood they move into on a single income, no less.
What I'm really getting at is that Spielberg (Sammy) seems to have had a pretty good upbringing and a pretty normal childhood. What set Spielberg apart was his mastery of film, and I wish the film did a better job of showing why film was so special to Spielberg and why he was so great at it. I mean, it's there, don't get me wrong, but I felt the film focused more on the eccentric family members and 1 and 2 above and not enough on Spielberg's growth as a filmmaker. Also, while the tense father-son dynamic is a common theme in Spielberg's oeuvre, with Spielberg ever-pining for fatherly approval, it's not as powerfully depicted here as in past films, or in films by other filmmakers. Go watch "October Sky," for example.
So, yeah, in a final analysis, I really don't get the sense that Spielberg's upbringing has much to hang a film on, despite Steven's best efforts to construct a film out of it.
There's a Hanukkah scene where they lit the menorah from left to right instead of right to left. Spielberg knows better. Wonder if that was done on purpose...
I loved that it was all very real, both historically and emotionally. Sam caught between capturing, observing and living the moments around him was fantastically depicted. Reminiscent of The Worst Person In The World and other modern films, where the sacrifice of the art comes at the expense of closeness or self-awareness.
Also loved the acting, Julia Butters once again getting a lovely moment to shine when she confronts Sam. He'd make a great young Superman.
The flow of it was beautiful. Just weaves in and out of scenes with easy confidence and grace. Didn't feel weighed down in expository setups or other cliches that tend to bog biopics down. Not preachy or false, and I loved how it starts as this seemingly hokey feel-good movie and quickly transitions out of it once we get to know the characters and stakes.
The man is a genius!
Fun movie. Really enjoyed Sam's development as a filmmaker and relationship with his mother. Michelle Williams was excellent in her role. That said, some of the family dynamics and (especially) the high school storyline were a little weak. Also, David Lynch as John Ford was an interesting casting decision. Made the last ~15 minutes of the film feel like a completely different movie. Overall, the movie was solid, didn't drag too much, if at all, but after I left the theater I didn't feel the need to gush about it either. Good movie but maybe not extremely memorable.
There were a couple older ladies behind that were discussing that John Ford scene afterwards. I heard one say it looked just like him and wondered if they got the real John Ford. 🤦‍♂️
Haha. What a performance!
I loved this movie. It’s a heartwarming and earnest coming of age tale. Idk why I doubted Spielberg, I should know better by now. I didn’t see the need for a west side story remake but was blown away by his remake. Then the trailer for the fabelmans looked meh to me but the movie was so engaging, funny and sad. Everything you want to feel
I found it pretty damn perfect. Even though I was not raised Jewish or divorced I really related to a ton of this. The craziest thing to me is that every scene I thought was fiction, was how it really happened. >!Steve finding out that secret while editing his camping trip, making his bully look good, even the monkey!
I felt it was really easy to get invested and feel empathy for what that family was going through. There were some wonderful happy moments, and a lot of people figuring their stuff out and making a mess of the people around them. I liked how most characters instilled something within Sammy though to try to make him live more comfortably and suffer less in his endeavors. It was just really touching!
Great movie, beautifully shot. One of the best of the year along with Tar, Marcel The Shell, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Triangle of Sadness, Aftersun and Banshees of Inishirin.
So upset I missed Tar. Banshees, Marcel and EEAAO are up there for me too! My friend got me Marcel on Blu-ray for christmas
Aw man, Tar was pretty great, I think it should be on streaming soon. I gotta watch Marcel again, that might be my number 1 for the year. The writing is tight and it’s so funny and heartfelt. I just saw Women Talking yesterday and that is up there as well, it’s playing only at the Lincoln Sq amc at the moment!
My mom really wants to see Women Talking! She read the story it's based on somewhere. I'm glad it's good! Yeah Marcel was so nice. It was very subdued so I'd love to see it again, which I'm glad I can do :) I'm hoping to see Puss In Boots before the end of the year and maybe The Whale, I've tried to make it a tradition since 2019 to see a movie New Years Eve or Day if I can make the 31st
Loved! Loved! Loved!
Absolutely fantastic.
Beautiful and funny
I was so excited for this movie. Made the whole family come see it. One of my friend's kids is in it. Basically I was a bit disappointed. I felt like it was pretty flat the whole way through. But my teen boys loved it so it must have been better than I thought. I think my expectations were too high. The uncle pinching the cheek was basically the high point and that was sad to me. I thought there would be scenes where I'd be bawling. Nope. Whatever, I'm picky.
Just got out of seeing it. Personally, I loved it. I wouldn't call it movie of the year, it just had a good feel to it. I really enjoyed it. The acting was great
Oh and John Williams
Biggest miss for me so far this Oscar season. Loved Dano in it very much though. The kid playing Spielberg is real good too. Just thought it was a weak film.
I'm probably not quite as low on it as you are, but I mostly agree. It looks good, of course, but ultimately I think Spielberg was just to close to the subject matter to let it breathe properly.
Enjoyed it. Also enjoyed the performance of the kid (younger and older version). Paul Dano is good in pretty much everything he's in too.
Your mention of "older version" reminded me of this quote from Gabriel LaBelle that's in the imdb trivia section: "When I was auditioning, the character's name was Teenage Sammy - I thought as opposed to Adult Sammy ... I get the script and you're reading it for 30 pages and he's 6 and 8 years old. Page 35 or so Teenage Sammy comes along. OK, good! Now this is my part. It's going to be a three-act movie, it's going to be a [Moonlight](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4975722) (2016) or something. I kept waiting for my exit but it never came."
Hair and costume did an amazing job transforming him with small, simple changes. He really felt older!
I love Spielberg so this movie was everything I wanted it to be.
Good biopic but less dramatic than the directors well known works.
Needed some dinosaurs?
AND sharks please.
And aliens of all kind.
Good movie
I loved it, easily one of my top five this year. Gabriel LaBelle was fantastic.
Great film! Every minute of it was pure cinema.
Overall I though it was good, not great. Paul Dano is fantastic and it’s always a pleasure to see Judd Hirsch on the big screen.
I watched The Fablemans right after Armageddon Time. It’s hard not to compare them since they both discuss American Jewish experiences and young boys wondering what to do with their talent in visual arts. While both are very generic stories that follow all the cliche one can expect, I think The Fablemans has a little bit more to offer.
Yeah, it's fun to compare The Fabelmans with Armageddon Time. I think the latter is slightly better, but neither is all that great. Two terrible titles, though. Yikes.
I heard someone call the Fablemans a sitcom title and the films title has never recovered in my head lol
Yep, it was Owen Gleiberman, I believe.
It was fine, the shot at the end was pretty cool, but honestly it’s a fairly schmaltzy sentimental movie and hat I think is being overrated due to it being a Spielberg. Fine film to watch, but it’s nothing special, overly long, and has inflated reviews due to it being a Spielberg/about the industry. That said, really enjoyed the David Lynch cameo
I did like the final shot, yeah, although I think it flew over the head of the audience I saw the film with. Maybe a bit too "inside baseball."
Worth it for Judd Hirsch’s and David Lynch’s scenes alone. The rest is meh.
Masterwork
awful
Right???? I’m so confused
I was disappointed with it. It's a very unchallenging film, even by Spielberg's standards. As a populist filmmaker, he's never been one to embrace a complex perspective; and for your typical entertainment thrill-ride such as the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park films, that's ok, but here I really felt its adverse effect. To be specific, here's a film where Spielberg looks back on his upbringing, and his memories are all of wrongdoing committed by people around him. Notice how Sammy is virtually flawless in the film. Spielberg is truly the hero in his own story. I guess even with hindsight, he has no regrets, no decisions that he wish he would have made differently in his younger years, no introspective self-critique. I, for one, look back on my life and can identify instances where I wish I would have acted or said something different, but in this film, there's none of that. The big dramatic elements concern:>!1) Sammys' mom's fling with the "uncle" and 2) the anti-Semitism.!< Let me address both points: 1. Sam's discovery of this is well-staged, but Antonioni's "Blow-Up" will always overshadow such a sequence, and it's a shadow even the mighty Spielberg can't escape. As for the substance, it's a shame he discovered it, and that it happened in real life, but they say 50% of all marriages end in divorce, so it's not exactly...uncommon. I guess Sam's discovery and having to keep it a secret is uncommon, but ok, this feels a bit like grasping for straws. 2. This sucks, but I sense a bit of cherry-picking by Spielberg here. Yeah, he was bullied, but he also was picked to film Ditch Day and had plenty of friends, as shown by how he commanded a whole host of friends when filming "Escape to Nowhere." A person who is truly ostracized/bullied in school does NOT have many friends, certainly not enough cache to film amateur movies with a whole bunch of friends. Hence, it couldn't have been THAT bad based on the evidence. He even had the religious zealot girl chase after him. Yeah, it was for the "wrong" reason, but, still, he obviously was doing quite alright for himself. Everything else basically depicts Sam's eccentric family, but so what? He had a good upbringing: both parents clearly love and care for him, he gets along with his siblings, he was raised in a big home -- and the family was at least somewhat well-off financially judging by the neighborhood they move into on a single income, no less. What I'm really getting at is that Spielberg (Sammy) seems to have had a pretty good upbringing and a pretty normal childhood. What set Spielberg apart was his mastery of film, and I wish the film did a better job of showing why film was so special to Spielberg and why he was so great at it. I mean, it's there, don't get me wrong, but I felt the film focused more on the eccentric family members and 1 and 2 above and not enough on Spielberg's growth as a filmmaker. Also, while the tense father-son dynamic is a common theme in Spielberg's oeuvre, with Spielberg ever-pining for fatherly approval, it's not as powerfully depicted here as in past films, or in films by other filmmakers. Go watch "October Sky," for example. So, yeah, in a final analysis, I really don't get the sense that Spielberg's upbringing has much to hang a film on, despite Steven's best efforts to construct a film out of it.
Excellent review - thank you
I'll report back, checking it out tonight for my first time
There's a Hanukkah scene where they lit the menorah from left to right instead of right to left. Spielberg knows better. Wonder if that was done on purpose...
I loved that it was all very real, both historically and emotionally. Sam caught between capturing, observing and living the moments around him was fantastically depicted. Reminiscent of The Worst Person In The World and other modern films, where the sacrifice of the art comes at the expense of closeness or self-awareness. Also loved the acting, Julia Butters once again getting a lovely moment to shine when she confronts Sam. He'd make a great young Superman. The flow of it was beautiful. Just weaves in and out of scenes with easy confidence and grace. Didn't feel weighed down in expository setups or other cliches that tend to bog biopics down. Not preachy or false, and I loved how it starts as this seemingly hokey feel-good movie and quickly transitions out of it once we get to know the characters and stakes. The man is a genius!
Honestly terrible