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The Fabelmans
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Wikipedia article
'The Fabelmans' is a 2022 American coming-of-age drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay he co-wrote with Tony Kushner (who also produced the film). It is a semi-autobiography about Sammy Fabelman, a young aspiring filmmaker based on Spielberg himself. The film stars Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy, with Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch in supporting roles. The film is dedicated to the memories of Spielberg's real-life parents Leah Adler and Arnold Spielberg.
'The Fabelmans' had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022, where it won the People's Choice Award. It is scheduled for a limited theatrical release in the United States on November 11, 2022, before expanding wide on November 23, 2022, by Universal Pictures.
The film received critical acclaim with praise for the performances of LaBelle, Williams, Dano, and Hirsch along with Spielberg's direction, the screenplay, cinematography, and score.
Premise
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, from age seven to eighteen, a young man named Sammy Fabelman discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.
Cast
Production
Development
In 1999, Steven Spielberg said he had been thinking of directing a film about his childhood for some time. Titled 'I'll Be Home', the project was originally written by his sister Anne Spielberg. He explained, "My big fear is that my mom and dad won't like it and will think it's an insult and won't share my loving yet critical point of view about what it was like to grow up with them." In 2002, Spielberg said he was nervous about making 'I'll Be Home': "It's so close to my life and so close to my family I prefer to make films that are more analogous. But a literal story about my family will take a lot of courage. I still think I make personal movies even if they do look like big commercial popcorn films."
Writing
In 2005, while working on 'Munich', Spielberg told screenwriter Tony Kushner his life story, with Kushner telling him in response: "You're going to have to make a movie about that someday." The film's plot outline was worked on in 2019 during filming of Spielberg's 2021 film version of 'West Side Story'. The work on the screenplay for 'The Fabelmans' began in October 2020 during the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Kushner reflected on the experience, saying, "We wrote three days a week, four hours a day, and we finished the script in two months: by leagues the fastest I've finished anything. It was a blast. I loved it."
Pre-production
In March 2021, Spielberg was announced to direct the film, with his involvement as co-screenwriter marking his first writing venture on a film since 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' (2001). It was also reported that Kristie Macosko Krieger would produce the film with Kushner and Spielberg. In March 2022, cinematographer Janusz Kamiski said the film would chronicle Spielberg's life from age seven to eighteen and deal with "his family, with his parents, conundrums with his sisters, but primarily deals with his passion for movie-making," while adding that it will touch on the themes of "young love, parental divorce, and early formative relationships ... It's a very beautiful, beautiful personal movie. It's very revealing about Steven's life and who he is as a filmmaker."Casting
In March 2021, Michelle Williams was in negotiations to star as Mitzi Fabelman, the role inspired by Spielberg's mother Leah Adler, but with "an original voice." Spielberg himself had her in mind for the role after watching her performance in 'Blue Valentine' (2010). That same month, it was reported that Seth Rogen joined the cast to play Bennie Loewy, the role inspired by "the favorite uncle of young Spielberg", while Williams was confirmed to have been cast. On April 8, 2021, Paul Dano joined the cast as Burt Fabelman, the role inspired by Spielberg's father Arnold. Dano admitted that he felt intimidated by playing the role because "the stakes felt really high ... You're embodying one of the most important, influential, complicated figures in [Spielberg's] life. It was incredible to see how much of this was in his work the whole time. He's sharing a piece of himself that I find very moving. There's a real gift in it, when somebody of that stature and at that level of artistry is willing to do that."
In May 2021, after a three month search, Gabriel LaBelle entered final negotiations to portray the lead role, Sammy Fabelman, a young aspiring filmmaker based on Spielberg himself. He would be confirmed the next month in addition to the casting of Julia Butters as Reggie Fabelman, the role inspired by Spielberg's sister Anne. Later that June, Sam Rechner was cast as well. In July, Chloe East, Oakes Fegley, Isabelle Kusman, Jeannie Berlin, Judd Hirsch, Robin Bartlett and Jonathan Hadary were added to the cast. In August, Gabriel Bateman, Nicolas Cantu, Gustavo Escobar, Lane Factor, Cooper Dodson and Stephen Matthew Smith were cast. They were later followed by newcomers Keeley Karsten, Birdie Borria, Alina Brace, Sophia Kopera, and Mateo Zoryna Francis-Deford. In February 2022, it was announced David Lynch would also star in an undisclosed role.
Filming
Principal photography began in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in Los Angeles in July 2021.During the shoot, the cast gained access to home movies, photographs and recollections from Spielberg's family's past to learn what they were like and how to portray the fictionalized versions of them (the Fabelman family) on screen, while making them feel fresh and original. Paul Dano reflected "It was overwhelming and it was sort of a heavy cloak to bear because we were with someone who was having a big experience everyday, revisiting and reworking through a part of their life ... For somebody like Steven to share that much of himself with us with the audience too it was really a profound experience."
For the scenes of Sammy filming his own 8mm films, Spielberg decided to have the character recreate the exact ones he made during his childhood, and worked with Kamiski to ensure that they were portrayed as accurately as possible, but with improvements in the camera angles. Spielberg remarked "It was joyful being able to recreate those films ... I shot a lot of films when I was a kid on 8mm. It was unique in those days. Not a lot of people were going out and shooting in 8mm. It was physical; it was a craft. You had to sit there with asplicer, and then you had to scrape the emulsion off the film in order to get a seal so when you put glue on it, you literally glued the film together. And I must say, I miss it."
Gabriel LaBelle was unaware of the casting of David Lynch until the day the scene he had to do with him was filmed. He recalled that once Lynch came onto the set, it enabled him to embody Sammy and how he was feeling, recalling "[Lynch is] a great guy. But leading up to it, Sammy's nervous, so I'm getting nervous."
Music
The musical score was composed by John Williams, marking his 29th film collaboration with Spielberg. On June 23, 2022, Williams revealed that this and the fifth 'Indiana Jones' film may be the last two films he will score before retirement.Release
'The Fabelmans' was sneak previewed on July 26, 2022, in Nanuet, New York. It had its world premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022, where it received two standing ovations from the audience, one before the film when Spielberg took the stage to introduce it, and a longer one preceding the post-film Q&A. The crowd was also reported to have been loudly chanting Spielberg's name while outside waiting to get into the theater during the red carpet arrivals. On the announcement of the premiere, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey remarked: "Its different from a typical Spielberg blockbuster, but it is just as easily impactful in terms of the emotional effect its going to have on people. If you love movies, this is going to be a very powerful film for you to watch. Im excited that its launching in an environment that celebrates cinema." Upon winning the festival's People's Choice Award, Spielberg remarked "Im glad I brought this film to Toronto! This is the most personal film Ive ever made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire Fabelman family ... a very special thank you to all the movie fans in Toronto who have made this past weekend one Ill never forget." It will also hold its United States premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on November 6, 2022, as the closing night film of the 2022 AFI Fest.
It is scheduled to be released by Universal Pictures in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York City on November 11, 2022, with a nationwide release on November 23 in the United States. It is Spielberg's first film distributed by Universal since 'Munich' (2005). Entertainment One will handle distribution in the United Kingdom, while Nordisk Film will release the film in select international territories.
Marketing
The poster to promote the film's world premiere at TIFF was released on September 7, 2022. The trailer premiered online on September 11, 2022. The music for the trailer was composed by Felix Erskine of Cavalry Music.Reception
Critical response
Chris Evangelista of '/Film' called it "...one of Spielberg's warmest, funniest films" and highlighted Kamiski's cinematography, saying that the shot of Sammy using "his hands as a makeshift screen, aiming the projector at his open palms" was one of the best in the film. Steve Pond of 'TheWrap' wrote "The film shows a light touch that doesn't detract from the very real depths that are being explored. That 'The Fabelmans' is one of Steven Spielberg's most personal movies was never in doubt; that it's also one of his most original and most satisfying in years is a welcome bonus." Pete Hammond of 'Deadline Hollywood' praised the performances of Williams, Dano, LaBelle and Butters, calling the former "gut-wrenchingly great," while saying that Dano was "terrific as the genuinely nice and loving father torn between following his own career and caring for his wife and family under increasingly difficult circumstances." He described LaBelle's performance as "sensational throughout, a young man with a love for movies, but tortured by growing pains and a family drifting apart." He even called David Lynch's cameo the moment of the film that was "worth the price of admission alone."
Ross Bonaime of 'Collider' wrote "For decades, Spielberg has shown us ourselves through the magic of his movies, and with 'The Fabelmans', he finally shows us who he is, the good and the bad, and pain and the joys, the magic and the mayhem." Peter Debruge of 'Variety' named it the frontrunner for the Academy Award for Best Picture, while writing "...this endearing, broadly appealing account of how Spielberg was smitten by the medium and why the prodigy nearly abandoned picture-making before his career even started holds the keys to so much of the masters filmography. More similar to Woody Allens autobiographical 'Radio Days' than it is to European art films such as 'The 400 Blows' and 'Amarcord' (the more highbrow models other directors typically point to when re-creating their childhoods), 'The Fabelmans' invites audiences into the home and headspace of the worlds most beloved living director, an oddly sanitized zone where even the trauma which includes anti-Semitism, financial disadvantage and divorce seems to go better with fresh-buttered popcorn.
David Ehrlich of 'IndieWire' was mixed about the film and gave it a B+, writing that Spielberg "...may not have been able to fix his parents' marriage, but for more than half a century his films have been reconciling the family that Arthur and Leah Spielberg made possible. 'The Fabelmans' doesn't do that as well as the director's best work, but it dramatizes his process of making peace with his dreams so beautifully that it almost doesn't matter. To me, this is a far cry from a magnum opus. For Spielberg, it feels like the greatest show on Earth." Brian Tallerico of 'RogerEbert.com' praised the screenplay, calling it "...a graceful gem, moving through different chapters of the life of this relatively average family that would just happen to produce an unaverage filmmaker." Benjamin Lee of 'The Guardian' was mixed, saying that "There remains a remove though still, Spielberg giving us a slightly too stage-managed version of himself and his family, some gristle missing from the darkest moments." Tomris Laffly of 'The Playlist' wrote "It's Spielberg's most personal film, one that gorgeously revives the memories of his childhood and youth with a lavish sense of wistfulness and an aptly Hollywood-ized, fable-like touch."
John DeFore of 'The Hollywood Reporter' called it "...a vivid capturing of the auteurs earliest flashes of filmmaking insight and a portrait, full of love yet unclouded by nostalgia, of the family that made him." Justin Chang of 'Los Angeles Times' called it "A uniquely confessional work, in which a great artist freely and happily acknowledges the manipulation inherent in the art form he was born to master." Leah Greenblatt of 'Entertainment Weekly' wrote that "If it all feels a little sanitized and idealized, it's also consistently lovely and after 75 years and 34 films, who more than Spielberg has earned the right to revisit his stardust memories?" Richard Lawson of 'Vanity Fair' wrote that "Not all memoir is generous. It can be intriguingly solipsistic, or maddeningly vain. But because theres always been a curious blankness to Spielbergs public personacheerful and engaged but never quite known 'The Fabelmans' does feel like something of a gift." David Fear of 'Rolling Stone' wrote that "If the movie does adhere to [Steven Spielberg's] signature beats, and feature so many recognizable Spielbergisms, occasionally to its detriment, its still one of the most impressive, enlightening, vital things hes ever done."
Anna Swanson of 'Film School Rejects' praised the film, saying "By laying bare indiscretions and frustrations, Spielberg is ostensibly airing out the dirty laundry and then treating it with the empathy that can only come from an adult perspective on childhood memories. As theyre depicted in the film, Burt and Mitzi are far more nuanced and complicated than any kid believes their parents to be when theyre young. Its a touching, mature gesture that ultimately flatters all involved." Kyle Buchanan of 'The New York Times' praised Michelle Williams' performance, writing that she "...really goes for it, attacking this part like someone who knows shes been handed her signature role." Allison Willmore of 'Vulture' wrote that "Spielberg, an incredibly precise filmmaker, never seems certain as to what a movie about his life, or about that of a slightly outsize proxy, should look like, and that uncertainty is actually the warmest and most vulnerable quality 'The Fabelmans' has." Johnny Oleksinski of 'New York Post' praised the film, calling it "...gripping, visually mesmeric, boasts an exceptional, grounded script by Tony Kushner and is acted to the hilt. A no-holds-barred Michelle Williams skyrockets to the front of the Oscar race with an unforgettable performance."
Accolades
References
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