Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 151 minutes
Release Date: November 11th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: Universal Pictures
Director(s): Steven Spielberg
Writer(s): Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner

Movies are dreams that you never forget.

Art or family. You have to choose. At least that’s what Uncle Boris tells young Sam Fabelman upon an unannounced visit to sit shiva for his recently passed sister, the latter’s grandmother. It’s probably the most lively scene of the whole film—unhinged words of wisdom that contain as much context for the slowly imploding world around Sam as advice for the future. That’s not to say the rest of Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans is boring. It’s just … period-specific familial drama that’s apparently interesting because it loosely depicts the director’s own adolescence. Is that enough to pretend it delivers something we haven’t seen before? You tell me.

At two and a half hours, I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s steady emotional horizon line remaining at the middle for the entirety flirted with becoming interminable. Spielberg’s direction is great and Tony Kushner’s script is funny and heartfelt and charming, but to what end? To tell us that art is hard? That genius is hard? That living in the shadow of either is hard? Yeah. We get it. Sam (Gabriel LaBelle) is selfish. His mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams) is selfish. Heck, even his father Burt (Paul Dano) is too, regardless of his kindness since it often stems from a pathological need to play the martyr as much as feigning reason to escape conflict. They’re all selfish and they’re all scared.

That’s why Judd Hirsch’s whirlwind entrance as Boris is so invigorating. I really thought it was going to be a turning point to inject some propulsive energy into the proceedings, but things settle back to a drone of coming-of-age antics with bullies, girls, divorce, and the inability to get out of one’s own way. It’s effective. Memorable even. But it’s also just sentimentally quaint. There are zero surprises. The family narrative is overwritten and repetitious at times. And the lessons Sam should be learning aren’t sticking to create on-screen evolution for him as much as they’re bludgeoning us with their obvious presence. It’s all very mannered in a way (performances too—sorry, Michelle). Self-conscious.

And that’s fine. The craft itself is beyond reproach. Much like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, Spielberg’s latest is quality entertainment that just never really wowed me. Besides Boris. And David Lynch as John Ford reenacting an anecdote I’m pretty sure I’ve seen floating around on Twitter many times in the past decade. So, while I can understand the love and, to a certain extent, the hate I’ve seen, The Fabelmans doesn’t read as divisive to me. It’s merely a nice story told well that may be pretending it’s more because of the pedigree at its back. Maybe I’ll rewatch it again one day and appreciate it more, but I’m not necessarily counting the days until I do.

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(from left) Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams), Burt Fabelman (Paul Dano), Natalie Fabelman (Keeley Karsten), Reggie Fabelman (Julia Butters) and Lisa Fabelman (Sophia Kopera) in THE FABELMANS, co-written, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. Copyright © Storyteller Distribution Co., LLC. All Rights Reserved. Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment.