THE FABELMANS gets 7/10 Boy with a movie camera

Directed by Steven Spielberg
Starring Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen

7/10

A couple of decades in the making and Steven Spielberg has finally unveiled his most autobiographical film, one that’s closely linked to his childhood of movie-making aspirations and his somewhat turbulent family life.

Young Sammy (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord) appears to be scared to go into a cinema, fearing the largeness of it all. His parents convince him they’re just unharmful images, but he’s overwhelmed with both fear and joy when he witnesses the train crash from The Greatest Show on Earth. Using his dad’s filmmaking equipment (8mm, no sync sound), he recreates this scene, and from there catches the filmmaker disease.

As a teen, Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) builds an assortment of resources for his short war film, using his fellow scouts and their equipment, as well as filming family moments around the house and when on camping vacation. But it’s when Sammy gets to the editing stage that he begins to discover unwelcome truths about his family.

There is some interesting introspection into how people regard filmmaking, particularly in an age long before they were ubiquitous with smartphones. The film’s most spellbinding moments are when it’s focused on the filmmaking aspect, which does make up the first 20 or so minutes, showing the urge of a young artist.

But the film finds itself a bit too busy with many of the other conflicts going on. Sammy does put away his camera equipment as the film starts going over family issues, mental illnesses, infidelity, school yard bullying, anti-semitism, first loves, and hardly any of it is as intriguing as the moviemaking side. As usual with many modern movies pushing over two hours, it’s not necessary for this to be as long as it is, with some of these other trials and tribulations only seeming to be tearing the film away from its main focus.

By the end, we get a fantastically amusing appearance by a popular film director of the time (played by a popular film director of our time, though I won’t spoil who), who closes off this film with a very simple technical advice for the young filmmaker. This is a cute ending, and cements this film as a crowd-pleaser, though it only feels as pleasing as when it’s on. There’s nothing hugely resonating about young Sammy’s aspirations and despite this coming from a grand master of the form, there are better films about filmmaking out there. This is still a good one though, especially in how it reveals its author’s passion for the craft from a young age.

DAVID MORGAN-BROWN