The Fabelmans
“It’s nice to see a woman in a semi-autobiographical narrative of a male filmmaker who doesn’t appear as just another flat character.”
Title: The Fabelmans (2022)
Director: Steven Spielberg 👨🏼🇺🇸
Writers: Steven Spielberg 👨🏼🇺🇸 and Tony Kushner 👨🏼🇺🇸
Reviewed by Symphony Barnes 👩🏻🇺🇸
Technical: 3.5/5
Known for popular films like Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), and more, Steven Spielberg has become one of the most commercially successful directors to date. All the while, he’d had a film in the back of his mind that centered around his own life, but it took until 2019 for the project to take off. The result is The Fabelmans, a charming movie inspired by the director’s childhood and adolescence.
Told through a fictionalized version of Spielberg, the film follows a boy who’s interested in movie-making: Sammy (first portrayed by Mateo Zoryan Francis-DeFord, then by Gabriel LaBelle in the character’s later years) discovers early on that the process of capturing stories on celluloid helps him process his own turbulent life. LaBelle’s performance stands as the best of the film, embodying the lead role with poise that shines through all of his scenes, no matter how much or how little he has to work with in the often-meandering script.
Joining LaBelle are acclaimed talents like Michelle Williams as Sammy’s mother, Mitzi, Paul Dano as Sammy’s father, and Judd Hirsch as Sammy’s granduncle. Williams especially brings tenderness and experience to her role; in a memorable scene, we see Mitzi play the piano as the character relives her youth as a promising pianist. Because of her fervent hands and body movements, it genuinely comes off as if it’s really her playing, but in reality, it’s Joanne Pearce Martin of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra.
Additionally, the cinematography shines in The Fabelmans through a few memorable moments. The camerawork in the scene mentioned above is especially noteworthy, capturing four different angles, ending on a low-angle shot looking above at Mitzi’s hands on the keys and capturing her face in the piano front’s reflection. Spielberg’s filmography may be known for his grander scenes, but this small moment is a real winner, especially in a sea of otherwise averagely-crafted scenes.
Gender: 4/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
The film’s roster favors men, but luckily, women such as Mitzi and Sammy’s high school girlfriend Monica (Chloe East) are given important things to do.
In particular, the film makes room for Mitzi’s emotional journey. She assumes the traditional matriarchal role at home, but we learn that she’d stifled her talent as a remarkable pianist in order to conform to society’s expectations of women, especially during this time period of the 1950s and ‘60s. Not all her creative leanings are lost, however; Mitzi bonds with her son over their shared passion for the arts. She helps Sammy shoot his films—stars in some of them—and continuously validates his unconventional path into filmmaking. It’s nice to see a woman in the semi-autobiographical narrative of a male filmmaker who doesn’t appear as just another flat character, merrily attending to housework or being used as a symbol. Instead, Mitzi is rendered as a human being, complete with needs and foibles of her own.
In addition, Monica’s character arc proves to be worthwhile. At first, she appears as a caricature of a devout Christian, inviting Sammy over for a prayer session and revealing her over-the-top shrine to Jesus. But rather than treat Monica as a one-note punchline, the writers have her stick around. She encourages his budding filmmaking career, and later—crucially—decides to break things off with Sammy after realizing they want different things, and she’s not up for compromises.
Race: 2/5
Spielberg is white, his family is white, and in his latest project, a family drama somewhat based on his own life, it makes sense that few people of color appear in the film. However, it’s still disappointing that the film oversimplifies the ones who do exist: Sammy’s friends Sal (played by Gustavo Escobar, who is of Colombian and Mexican descent) and Dean (played by Lane Factor, Creek-Seminole and Caddo) both receive very little screen time and dialogue, rendering them meaningless beyond how they make Sammy appear as a “good guy” for having brown friends.
Adding to the sense of a white worldview, The Fabelmans stays noticeably silent on the racial and political upheavals that took place during the film’s setting. One quick Goldwater reference aside, events like the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, the beginnings of the Vietnam War, and the March on Washington might as well have never happened, at least not in the insular world of The Fabelmans. Writing for The New Yorker, Richard Brody puts it well: “What Spielberg offers is a narrative span of time that takes place within the isolation of personal concerns that are wholly detached from the civic ones. It’s the myth of a private life that can even exist in such isolation—America without graffiti.”
Bonus for Religion: +0.75
Like Spielberg, Sammy is raised in a Jewish home. The onscreen portrayal of Jewishness feels nuanced, making up an important aspect of the Fabelmans’ lives. It’s referenced often, the film beginning at the onset of Hanukkah when their family’s house stands as the only dark one on the block and Sammy asks if they can put up lights to match the other homes glowing with Christmas decorations. Other rituals are observed, like Shabbat during which the Fabelmans pray and enjoy challah, kugel, and brisket. Even brief mentions remind viewers that they’re watching Jewish characters; when Mitzi gets a monkey for a pet, the family wonders aloud whether or not it’s kosher.
The film’s co-writer, Tony Kushner—who is also Jewish—has spoken on this, saying, “I like very much the sort of easy way that Jewishness lives in this movie. It’s a very profound part of Steven’s identity, and of the Fabelmans’ identity. But it’s a movie that’s about Jewish people, rather than entirely or exclusively about Jewishness or antisemitism or something.”
Although the film’s main focus isn’t antisemitism, it does touch on it. Sammy gets slurs and antisemitic jokes hurled at him, even becoming a victim of violent assault by some of his classmates who threaten to beat him up and shatter his skull. The featuring of prejudice towards Jewish people stands as especially profound, given that this film’s release came at a time when antisemitic hate crimes have neared and reached record-breaking numbers.
But with all these positives comes a slight negative. Although LaBelle is Jewish, as is Seth Rogen who plays a close friend of the Fabelmans, Williams and Dano are not. Comedian Sarah Silverman writes, “In a time when the importance of representation is seen as so essential and so front and center, why does ours constantly get breached even today?”
Bonus for Age: +0.25
Hirsch, who is currently 87 years old, enters the story as Sammy’s granduncle, Boris. While he has just one scene, he shines in it as a peppery man, grumbling about his past work in the circus before veering into more serious topics of grief and art. “Art will give you crowns in heaven,” he says, “and laurels on Earth. But it will tear your heart out.” It’s an emotional performance that Hirsch delivers with a lot of oomph for only a handful of minutes on screen.
Mediaversity Grade: B- 3.50/5
Spielberg’s onscreen interpretation of his youth may not cover all the dimensions of inclusiveness, nor stand as one of his most finely crafted works. But it remains a decent picture and most audiences will find something to connect with in it.
Like The Fabelmans? Try these other titles depicting Jewish families.
Armageddon Time (2022)
She Said (2022)
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