Starring: Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen.
Written By: Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner
I’ve tried my best to watch as many of the films with Oscar nominations as possible. I’ve read so many articles featuring the cast of a variety of the films that I’ve finally reached (for some of them at least) the conversion stage of the customer journey funnel. As most of the movies are no longer in theatres and I live in a city that doesn’t have a lot of movie theatre options, I’ve actually out right purchased digital copies of these films like The Whale and now The Fabelmans.
Expected a lot from a movie based on Spielberg's childhood
At the start of the 2022 Oscar buzz season, The Fabelmans seemed like the film to beat. It’s one of those “prestige” films that’s considered “cinema” by old school critics and it’s directed and co-written by none other than one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Steven Spielberg.
What finally pushed me over the edge to make the purchase on YouTube Movies was the sale price ($12 Canadian). But mostly, I’ve been curious to find out what I would learn about Spielberg’s formative years. The Fabelmans has been marketed as a semi-autobiographical film that shows audiences how he came to his love of making pictures. Or at least that’s what I thought it was based on from all of the conversation bites about what this film is about.
I’m very sad to say that I was very surprised and disappointed that the film veered into so many directions. I went in thinking I was going to experience how one of the all-time greats came to love film and what happened as he trekked towards his dreams as a young boy and then young man, but the movie didn’t quite address that. Nor did it even really delve into it.
We got a taste of the start of Spielberg’s fascination with film when his boyhood alter ego, Sammy, is taken to see The Greatest Show on Earth with his mom and dad. The set-up of this childhood memory is just like a movie from the golden age of film. His mom and dad are dressed like those fashionable golden people of what appears to be the 1950’s and they talk with an Eastern seaboard Ivy League lilt.
Is The Fabelmans about Sammy's journey to be a filmmaker or his family's disintegration?
After watching the film, Sammy wants to re-create a toy train crash scene, so his mom Mitzi (Michelle Williams), allows him to use his dad Burt’s (Paul Dano) 8 mm camera to capture the collision. But for some reason, this revelation doesn’t hit the feels for me. There’s something missing from this supposed wonderment and start of what’s going to be an incredible, historical journey for Sammy Fabelman or aka Spielberg. But it didn’t quite land.
Sammy soon turns into a 16 year-old Sammy and by now he’s apparently able to film real movies that come with soundtracks, props, and actors. He seemingly knows how to make these little films that are premiered in real theatres. I don’t know if I missed something along the way, but I totally expected to take the journey with Sammy on his quest to work as a picture maker in Hollywood.
There are no trials or tribulations. No struggles. We don’t even get to see how he hones his craft. And I’m not talking about the home movies he’d make of his disintegrating family. I’m talking about the practice it takes to create art. The preamble before you put pen to paper or eye to camera. What was Sammy’s teenage thought process to film making? That was what I needed from The Fabelmans to understand why I should care about a kid whose family was well off enough to finance his “hobby” as his father initially kept calling it.
But instead, the film takes a detour into Sammy’s home life instead. Which is oddly much more interesting, but I’m conflicted about this feeling. I thought I was supposed to care about how Sammy came to love and get into the business of filmmaking and what pivotal role his family had in the cultivation of his craft. Not that his mom is having an affair with his dad’s best friend and “Uncle” Benny (Seth Rogen).
Sammy's mom Mitzi's grief convinces me to keep watching
After about 40 minutes, I was about to give up on The Fabelmans. It was just so boring and void of any emotional depth and drama. But then when the family is gathered unexpectedly in a hospital room, finally, we had something in The Fabelmans.
The way Mitzi wailed for her dead mother was for me the turning point of the movie. This was the off ramp we needed to go from thinking the movie is about how Sammy/Spielberg came to love making movies to the movie really being about his tumultuous family life which saw the family of six zigzagging across the United States due to Burt’s important job as an engineer.
But the rest of The Fabelmans seemed like a struggle of which story it should tell. We get a bit of Mitzi’s breakdown in having to leave Arizona for California (and therefore leave Benny). And we get a hint of the family tension and fractures around the sudden disruption in life by always having to move. Burt at some points, it seems like he’s caught on to Benny and Mitzi. And poor Sammy sees the visual evidence through one of his home movies taken during a camping trip.
Too many stories going on and not one is fully formed
I get the metaphors and symbolism that Spielberg is trying to demonstrate to us about his love of filmmaking colliding with the breakdown of his family and how one led to the revelation of the other. But it all seemed glossed over. It’s like we’ll touch on it for a scene or two, but then we’ll switch gears again.
In The Fabelmans, we have the story of Mitzi breaking down because she misses Benny. We have the story of Sammy making his films and wanting to pursue it over college. We have the dad who keeps pursuing bigger jobs for more money and responsibilities. And then we suddenly have the story of Sammy dating a girl who’s not Jewish and his high school life being tormented by bigoted bullies. And oh right, there was the random “scary” Uncle Boris (Judd Hirsch).
Characters come and go
The old crotchety guy dropped by for a visit to talk about the love of art and something about art over family or family over art. I don’t even remember what the point of his character was. Now having seen The Fabelmans, I don’t understand why Hirsch was even considered for an Oscar nomination over Paul Dano or even Seth Rogen (who was woefully underused in his role). I’ll have to rewatch his tiny bit part to see if I missed something cinematically impactful with his performance. But from the first viewing, nothing he said sounded mind breaking and memorable. It doesn’t help that we never see or hear from him again after his unannounced visit.
And that’s what happens to several characters or plotlines in The Fabelmans. The movie is about Sammy, but we rarely hear from the other three kids in the house. It’s like you forget that Sammy isn’t an only child. Sammy’s sisters do show up as willing test actors in Sammy’s films and they’re there sometimes to give a speech about why mommy and daddy are divorcing. But we don’t ever really get to know them or how their lives are affected by their parents indulging in their big brother’s dreams. Did they have dreams like Sammy? What’s happening with them? Are they getting bullied in school? I don’t know.
Mitzi's absence and the aftermath is never explored
Perhaps the biggest exit that just deflates the emotional anchor of The Fabelmans is when Benny leaves and when Mitzi finally gives up her family life in California and returns to Arizona to be with Benny. We don’t get to see or understand how that ending really affects Sammy, Burt, or the girls. When Burt and Mitzi sit the kids down to tell them they’re divorcing and mommy is returning to Arizona, the oldest daughter, don’t know what her name is, finally demonstrates actual emotions of how it is when this kind of upheaval happens to you as a kid.
But we don’t really see or hear about this much after that scene. We just suddenly see Sammy one year later in a home with just his dad there and he’s amazingly received an offer to work on Hogan’s Heroes at CBS. It’s like wow. Sammy never really goes through any difficulties to work in Hollywood. Or at least that’s how it comes off like. We don’t know if he had fights with his parents about school or if they wanted him to get a job to contribute after graduation. We don’t know if his being Jewish may have slowed down his journey. We don’t ever see Sammy sweat and toil in the production fields like many filmmakers I gather have to go through.
From what I’ve seen of television and advertising production crews, it’s a very grueling schedule and you don’t get paid much. It’s stressful and you don’t get a lot of acknowledgement for your hard work. They’ll fire you if they don’t need you, don’t like you, or can’t afford you anymore. Sammy’s path to Hollywood seemed quite smooth.
He’s not tired. He’s not venting about long hours or annoying publicists or talent or corporate managers. He’s just fine because he’s able to live with his very well off GE or IBM or big name brand engineer dad in Hollywood. To top it off, he’s like an 18 year-old going to work on Hogan’s Heroes. And, we’re not done with the lucky streak, he even gets to meet his idol, the legendary John Ford.
It’s like wow, what a very charmed beginning, middle, and ending for Sammy. The movie even ends with Sammy skipping down the studio lot with a big smile after he leaves Ford’s office. Sure, Ford cursed him out, but there’s no fear of losing political points for the interaction or any disillusionment that may come when you meet your heroes in real life.
A rose colored glasses look back with no emotional depth
The Fabelmans is pretty much a rose colored look back on what seems like a very easy start of an amazing Hollywood career. But we’re not really invited to know how the process worked. All we know is that Sammy is very lucky and talented (apart from his parents divorcing which didn’t seem to make much of a dent to his self-esteem or emotional well-being).
But from what I’ve seen of other artists whether they work in film or TV production or journalism or writing, it’s a very shitty and stressful journey to pursue your craft. It really tests your faith and stamina to keep at it with little pay and opportunities. And it doesn’t matter if you have a very comfortable launch pad like Sammy or you’re a struggling student buoyed by loans and side gigs.
I worked in broadcast media but on the corporate side and even that side is very long hours, a lot of politics, and just a lot of really not so nice things. It’s always so amusing to me whenever newbies with stars in their eyes are so happy to be working in entertainment, but after a few months or so, they’ve put in their resignation or they’re looking for an escape route.
The world of entertainment only has so many occupancies and so everyone is fighting to get that piece of the pie whether it’s the talent or corporate side. That scarcity model is used against you in that you’ll be pushed and pushed to perform because they know that if you really want to work in entertainment, there’s only so many companies in town hiring. It’s essentially an industry that’s a monopoly and built on relationships and connections.
But we don’t see or hear any of this. I don’t even know how in the world someone like Sammy with little connections or notoriety got the in at CBS. I’ll have to re-watch that part again. I know it was relatively easier for me to get hired because I worked in a job that actually demanded hard skills in analytics over who I was friends with. But even then, I would see resumes from starry eyed Sammy’s who wanted a foot in the door even if the foot was in a door that had nothing to do what they really wanted to do in entertainment.
This Is Us accomplishes in one episode what the The Fabelmans couldn't in one movie
In the end, The Fabelmans came off like a 2 and a half hour distillation of all 6 seasons of This Is Us. But This Is Us provides a far more superior emotional assessment and depiction of what it’s like to be a human and grow up from a child to an adult. You can take one episode of This Is Us and stack it up against all 2 hours and 30 minutes of The Fabelmans and you’ll wonder why Spielberg didn’t take any emotional risks like This Is Us did in an hour week after week.
This is not to say that The Fabelmans is a bad film. It had a lot of great themes and characters and moments. Michelle Williams was tremendous as the kooky 1950’s mom who if she were born in this era, may not have had kids at all or would’ve married the type of guy she really loved in the first place. Seth Rogen as Benny was also amazing as the funny and silly Uncle. Those two characters were the only ones who showed any real life behind the glossy 1950’s screen and during a time when people wore suits to the movies.
Perhaps the biggest gap in The Fabelmans is that there was no real clear plot. It was like a slice of life journey that didn’t really go anywhere or had a through line of some sort. I loved the paths we were brought on, especially the breaking down of Mitzi and her concealing the affair with Benny. But we never really got to go deep down those paths. We never really got to know what people were really feeling and going through.
This Is Us episodes are usually around a small slice of their life, but it’s jam packed with emotion from start to finish. We get invested in the Pearsons and those around them. But I didn’t get that with The Fabelmans. The only time I cared was when Mitzi was practically in the hospital bed with her mom and whimpering in pain over the death of her mom. The sound of her pain, it was so raw and animalistic. Where was that in the rest of the film? Some serious stuff happened, but everyone seemed quite resilient to the destruction. Maybe The Fabelmans should have been the story of Mitzi instead of Sammy.
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