[FILM]
THE FABELMANS
BIG SCREEN. SMALL SCREEN. YOUR REVIEWS BIBLE STARTS HERE
[ EDITED BY JOHN NUGENT] ★★★★★ EXCELLENT ★★★★ GOOD ★★★ OKAY ★★ POOR ★ AWFUL
★★★★★
OUT 27 JANUARY / CERT 12A / 151 MINS
DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg
CAST Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen
PLOT Steven Spielberg’s chronicle of his own early years begins with young Sammy Fabelman (LaBelle) and his family living a seemingly idyllic life in New Jersey, before dad Burt’s (Dano) work takes them across America. As Sammy begins an obsession with filmmaking, he learns that all is not as it seems...
THE YOUNG STEVEN Spielberg — or at least, his on-screen avatar Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) — learns a lot in this film. About his parents, about himself, about secrets, about lies, about death, about art, about anti-Semitism, about horny teenage girls, about chaotic monkeys and, of course, about filmmaking. After a formative trip to the cinema, Sammy begins making home movies, and soon discovers how the camera can comfort, thrill and shock. He also learns what cinema tells us about people; how it can elevate them, reflect them, devastate them. Most of all, he learns how it can give us truth. Or bury it. “You really see me,” his mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams) tells him, in the film’s most chilling sequence.