2022 ( USA | India ) ( Drama )
Starring: Michelle Williams, Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano
Director: Steven Spielberg
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.
Spielberg, now aged 76, waited until his parents had died before reimagining their story as the loving, middle-class Jewish family in The Fabelmans. Mum Mitzi (Michelle Williams) and boffin-y dad Burt (Paul Dano) take son Sammy (Mateo Zoryan Francis-Deford and later Gabriel LaBelle) to the cinema to watch The Greatest Show On Earth. The 11-year-old is left traumatised by the climactic train crash. He obsessively recreates it with his train set and home videos the smash-ups as a way of controlling his fear. This is a coming-of-age portrait of the artist as a young man and a love letter to the power of movies to entertain and move us.
Part memoir, part ode to the power of the movies, The Fabelmans finds Steven Spielberg digging at the family roots that helped make him a beloved filmmaker — and proves he hasn’t lost his magic touch. The Fabelmans has, unsurprisingly, received seven nominations for this year’s Oscars, including a best actress nod for Williams and a best director nod for Spielberg himself.
(2hr 31min)