Skip to content
The Fabelmans is a new Steven Spielberg movie, which we’re told is loosely based on his life, since it centres around a young boy who learns to love the cinema from an early age, even if he’s scared about his first trip because he thinks the people on the screen are huge.
In fact, I remember one of my first cinema experiences was seeing E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial by the same director. I was 10 at the time, and it was New Year’s Day 1983, although it won’t have been my first trip, not that I can remember what that was.
For young Sammy Fabelman, it’s Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth, and he’s forever stunned by a scene involvea car getting stuck on a train track, just as the train is on its way, leading to him receiving a train track for Hannukah, and then using his Dad’s camera with which to film a train crash, so he can watch it over and over, rather than damage the train by doing it manually each time, and during which, we see him filming it from multiple angles.
Along the way, and as he grows up, he makes his short film debut, Gunsmog – spoofing the western, Gunsmoke. His dad, Burt (Paul Dano – Love and Mercy), fixes TVs for some extra cash, but works on the BIZMAC computer system, the family are sometimes seen eating off paper plates, Burt’s best friend, Bennie (Seth Rogen – Long Shot), hangs around a lot, and over time, they move from New Jersey to Phoenix, and to California, but are the strains of marriage cracking for Burt and his wife, Mitzi (Michelle Williams – All The Money In The World)?
There’s also a nice turn from Judd Hirsch (Uncut Gems), as Uncle Boris, who comes to stay for Mitzi’s mother’s funeral, telling Sammy how he once worked in films, too.
However, while The Fabelmans is well-acted, It’s just so pedestrian in the telling and I really wasn’t feeling it.
The 2nd half of the film is more interesting, with Sammy as he goes to high school in California, but then late on, it does feel more like a bog-standard teen high school movie, as he gets a girlfriend – the heavily religious Monica (Chloe East), and goes toe-to-toe with the school jock, Logan (Sam Rechner), but overall, it’s not at all worth the hype laden on it.
And like Babylon, it’s another big production movie about Hollywood which the cinema-going audience really hasn’t given two hoots about. After being released in the US on November 11th 2022, it’s only taken $16.5m, and another $9m elsewhere so far, making it a disaster for Spielberg.
As an aside, the screening I attended had subtitles, which took me a while to realise, since I always do this at home anyway. In fact, I first noticed them when they were on the Cecil B DeMille film clip, so I just thought they were part of that, until they continued.
The Fabelmans is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD and Amazon Prime.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 151 minutes
Release date: January 27th 2023
Studio: Universal Pictures UK
Format: 1.85:1 (Spherical, Super 16 (some scenes), Super 35, Super 8 (some scenes))
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 4.5/10
Director: Steven Spielberg
Producers: Tony Kushner, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner
Music: John Williams
Cast:
Mitzi Fabelman: Michelle Williams
Burt Fabelman: Paul Dano
Bennie Lowey: Seth Rogen
Sammy Fabelman: Gabriel LaBelle
Younger Sammy Fabelman: Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord
Natalie Fabelman: Keeley Karsten
Younger Natalie FabelmanL Alina Brace
Reggie Fabelman: Julia Butters
Younger Reggie Fabelman: Birdie Borria
Uncle Boris: Judd Hirsch
Lisa Fabelman: Sophia Kopera
Hadassah Fabelman: Jeannie Berlin
Tina Schildkraut: Robin Bartlett
Logan Hall: Sam Rechner
Chad Thomas: Oakes Fegley
Monica Sherwood: Chloe East
Claudia Denning: Isabelle Kusman
Renee: Chandler Lovelle
Sal: Gustavo Escobar
Hark: Nicolas Cantu
Turkey: Cooper Dodson
Roger: Gabriel Bateman
Angelo: Stephen Smith
Barry: Kalama Epstein
Phil Newhart: Connor Trinneer
Dean: Lane Factor
Bernie Fein: Greg Grunberg
John Ford: David Lynch
Nona: Jan Hoag
Janet Benedict: Brinly Marum
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.