The Fabelmans (2022)

9

of 10

I was moved to tears by the end, because at so many points I felt the resonance with my own life as a “creative”—the child of a singer who left her career behind for family, and a pianist who took a white collar job and worked himself to the bone just to provide, both in spite of their genius. I came away with a renewed sense of how beautiful and scary a gift it is, to be given creative passion. It always exists in the context of a human life that is messy, lonely, and painful.

Concept

7.7

Execution

8.7

Character

8.1

Score

5.9

Meaning

7.6

8

Fictionalized memoir of the childhood of a filmmaker stuck in the clash between art and life. An excellent vehicle.

8.5

Plays on “vignettes”, but really overcomes the shortcomings of that format with how well woven together everything is.

6.5

Not outlandish, but certainly fresh.

9

Spielberg showing off his full form. Perhaps some bits that could have been cut, but the directing really feels like a tour de force.

8.5

Not canonizable, but very good. Excellent use of bilingualism, conspicuously good lines, no glaring issues.

9

Teenage Sam, Mitzi, Uncle Boris, and more, with fabulous performances. Judd Hirsch as “Uncle Boris” in particular might get an Oscar for literally one scene.

8

A few shots that get the “conspicuously good” designation, several in Sam’s “films within the film”, which is an interesting twist.

9

Very good, very well integrated. (See the fingernail clicks, wow.)

8.5

Wonderful period detail throughout, perfect sets. Plus points for loving attention to detail on the piano performances, including that interior shot of lifting the damper pedal. Oof!

9

So many of the characters that we get to know well—and many we see only briefly—have so much going on behind the scenes that makes them complex and imperfect.

6

There’s a little bit of this that peeks through, but in large degree folks tend to behave explainably—or, perhaps justifying the more intermediate score, explainably given knowledge we get later on.

9

This movie hits on both points: many, many relationships are complex and ineffable, and, these relationships serve as the vehicle for elucidating characters’ complex attributes (e.g., for sure Mitzi).

8.5

The film doesn’t just say, “Mitzi is creative.” It shows you what that means, in every facet, in a way that is recognizable to someone from a creative household. Minus points because, in spite of much very excellent emergence, it does hold our hand and tell us a great deal explicitly.

6.5

So much was stock classical piano, which, I know, makes sense. But we finally got some great Williams cues, right at the very end. So tantalizing, such an under-use of the talent you brought in!

5

A little bit from some of the classical piano pieces used during the camping trip editing scene, etc.

7

Not exemplary, but quite good at points. Plus for the records played during Sam’s films, which were better than this film’s score!

4

I love John Williams, but even his bits were kind of stock John Williams, you know what I mean?

7

Not throughout, but definitely did get me in certain points.

9

At times I thought I was seeing my own childhood, my own creative middle-class family, laid out before me—the complexity, the humanity, and above all the passionate longing for the unattainable art. It was all presented in its raw, complicated, ambivalent form.

5

I think this is an important film, but in the world today, I think that this type of creative passion has become almost “passé”—a folly of older generations who were not “well-rounded”, who did not have the same relentless, all-consuming pressure to conform that has taken over because of technology. I don’t abide by that view, but I can see how the film might not resonate with a 2022 audience.

9.5

That said: The pursuit of art—perhaps defined more broadly—is a core part of the human experience. This film shows the intersection of that ideal with the messy reality of our specific lives in a time and place, and that resonates, at least with me.

7

Perhaps not all-encompassing, but the creative spark that drives so many into fervent passion in their disciplines—art, music, film, science, what have you—follows in the same pattern. I was deeply moved by Uncle Boris’ speech, with respect to my own experience as a creative scientist; it made me critically re-examine my own place as an “artist” in my field.