![]() ![]() ![]() Even his high school girlfriend is thinly sketched. His grandmother is a caricature of a dour in-law. Sammy's sisters are interchangeable as playmates and occasional pests. Sadly, the other female characters are even less complex. Instead, she comes in flashes, wowing but disjointed. For all the adoration Sammy (and Spielberg) shower on this complicated woman, who wounded and inspired her son, it never felt to me like we fully saw her. Watching the film at its World Premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, I witnessed audiences laugh and cheer for Mitzi, but mostly I feel unnerved by her. Her vulnerability is played as boldly as her false bravado, with tears and trembles or proclamations so bouncy that they come off as sitcom punchlines. However, Williams's performance too rarely finds a chance for breath. In that way, this performance reminded me of Carey Mulligan in Wildlife (Opens in a new tab), whose character seemed to fake it until she could make herself into the divas she admired from Hollywood movies. Mitzi with her grand facial expressions and manically buoyant tone feels like she's performing what she thinks a happy homemaker acts like. But there's a jarring largeness to it that feels performative. A sadness lurks in her stolen glances and the bittersweet and sensual dance she performs in a nightgown, backlit by headlights.įull of emotive close-ups, it's certainly the kind of performance that's made for Oscar reels. There's a defiant glamor to Mitzi's look, with her blunt blonde bob and perfectly manicured nails, even when she's wearing dungarees and playing with her kids. Spielberg has given her a showy role as Mitzi Fabelman, a radiant, eccentric, and mentally struggling wife and mother who feels her destiny has been determined - and not on her terms. Michelle Williams is a force as a glorious and broken mother.Īlready there's talk that Williams will campaign for the Best Actress Oscar (Opens in a new tab) this winter. Kenneth Branagh's 'Belfast' offers an indulgent origin story The attention Spielberg pays to the other figures in this story, however, are painfully hit or miss. In these moments, Spielberg smoothly casts his onscreen analog among the likes of E.T.'s Elliott, A.I.'s David, or Hook's Jack - seemingly ordinary boys with a hidden depth of feeling and the potential for greatness. There's a joyous nostalgia in sequences where Sammy has dolled up his sisters for their roles in a stagecoach Western or is coaching a mouth-breathing jock to express the gravity of the homemade World War II battle scene before him. The master moviemaker mythologizes himself with recreations not only of his youth and family but also the early film shoots that served as earnest homages to the titans who came before him. Also like Spielberg, Sammy has three sisters, a mother who was once a concert pianist, and an electrical engineer father whose work moved the East Coast(ish) household to Phoenix, Arizona, in the 1950s.ĭevotees of the director will likely relish wondering which bits of the film are pulled directly from his life (like his first homemade movie featuring a toy train crash) and which have been given the ol’ Hollywood glow-up. Like Spielberg once was, his young protagonist Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) is a Jewish boy who finds magic at the movies. Like Kenneth Branagh's Belfast, Spielberg's The Fabelmans pulls inspiration from the life of its director and co-writer. The Fabelmans is Steven Spielberg's life story. Now, with The Fabelmans, he turns his lens on himself for a family drama that hits very close to home. Only last year, he brought us the absolute marvel that was West Side Story. The 75-year-old filmmaker has not slowed down. With Jurassic Park, he resurrected dinosaurs, and with Indiana Jones, he redefined adventure for new generations. With E.T., he taught our spirits to soar like a little boy's bike. With Jaws, he chased us out of the waves. For nearly 50 years, Steven Spielberg has defined cinema magic through eye-popping action and heartwarming, humane stories. ![]()
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