It seems like Steven Spielberg has always been there. An elder statesman of filmmaking with a striking visual style second to no one. It's easy to take him for granted. He's made masterpieces, but also frustrating films. I've loved some of them, I've hated a few, but they all are visually stunning.
It all started, at least for me, in 1971. I was all of ten years old. Duel, a made-for-TV movie adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story, roared through living rooms. It seemed that every other kid had seen Duel, and everyone loved it.
TV movies of the seventies were generally pretty good, but Duel was something else altogether. I knew, without really knowing it, that the movie was more than merely a story of a guy in a little car being chased by a lunatic in a big truck. Looking back, it felt like nothing less than the embodiment of mortality pursuing poor Dennis Weaver, and me, across a barren landscape of rural American highways.
Then of course there is Jaws. It wasn't Spielberg's first feature, but Jaws put him on the map forever. Had Steven Spielberg done nothing other than Jaws, he would go down in movie history.
Jaws, more than any other movie, is a signpost that married the B/Exploitation movie with the mainstream. The Roger Corman/William Castle/Burt I. Gordon quickie shocker done up as a huge Hollywood spectacle. It was the birth of the Summer Movie, and things were never the same after Shark Fever attacked the world.
Spielberg had his own ticket after that. There were duds, like 1941. I felt some were murky and overblown. Close Encounters of the Third Kind comes to mind. Then there are the truly great productions like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, and E.T. I like some of his oddities: Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal. Jurassic Park provided popcorn entertainment to millions of movie lovers everywhere.
Now we have The Fabelmans, a movie I was sure I'd love as soon as I heard about it.
I avoided hearing too many details about The Fabelmans. I wanted my mind to be a clean slate. I knew the movie deals with a young Spielberg surrogate growing up in the 1960s and learning to make movies. I was blindsided and completely blown away by the emotional complexity in The Fabelmans.
As the title suggests, The Fabelmans deals as much with the family as with filmmaking. Perhaps even more so. Spielberg shows us that family, creativity, passion, work are all inexorably connected. Art can be beautiful and rewarding, but it always comes with a price.
I don't think Steven Spielberg has ever delivered a better picture. No, I am not forgetting Jaws or Schindler's List. None has hit me in the psyche as hard as The Fabelmans. It's a perfect movie.
Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is lush and precisely recreates the tone of the sixties. Longtime musical collaborator John Williams brings forth another exquisite score. Tony Kushner is the best writer Spielberg has ever worked with.
And then there is the cast. Paul Dano, as the father, is the archetypical sixties workaholic husband. Seth Rogen doesn't quite escape the brash stereotype character he has developed over the years, but he shows new depths in The Fabelmans. Judd Hirsch is both ominous and hilarious as a deadpan uncle. Gabriel LaBell plays the young Spielberg character and hits all the high and low notes perfectly. For God's sake don't miss David Lynch in one of the greatest cameos in movie history.
But, my God, Michelle Williams as the mother is the real show-stopper. I always liked her, but here she portrays an incredibly difficult character. She could lose audience sympathy if she didn't didn't play it just right. Her performance is as good or better than anything ever done by Cate Blanchett or Maryl Steep.
Yes, I loved The Fabelmans. It's not only my favorite Spielberg, this movie is in my top ten of all time. It's a hard movie that struck a little too close to home here and there, and it sometimes hurt to watch it, but that's what great art should do. The Fabelmans is also joyous and funny and sweet. This is a movie I will grow old with.
Written by Mark Sieber
It all started, at least for me, in 1971. I was all of ten years old. Duel, a made-for-TV movie adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story, roared through living rooms. It seemed that every other kid had seen Duel, and everyone loved it.
TV movies of the seventies were generally pretty good, but Duel was something else altogether. I knew, without really knowing it, that the movie was more than merely a story of a guy in a little car being chased by a lunatic in a big truck. Looking back, it felt like nothing less than the embodiment of mortality pursuing poor Dennis Weaver, and me, across a barren landscape of rural American highways.
Then of course there is Jaws. It wasn't Spielberg's first feature, but Jaws put him on the map forever. Had Steven Spielberg done nothing other than Jaws, he would go down in movie history.
Jaws, more than any other movie, is a signpost that married the B/Exploitation movie with the mainstream. The Roger Corman/William Castle/Burt I. Gordon quickie shocker done up as a huge Hollywood spectacle. It was the birth of the Summer Movie, and things were never the same after Shark Fever attacked the world.
Spielberg had his own ticket after that. There were duds, like 1941. I felt some were murky and overblown. Close Encounters of the Third Kind comes to mind. Then there are the truly great productions like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, and E.T. I like some of his oddities: Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal. Jurassic Park provided popcorn entertainment to millions of movie lovers everywhere.Now we have The Fabelmans, a movie I was sure I'd love as soon as I heard about it.
I avoided hearing too many details about The Fabelmans. I wanted my mind to be a clean slate. I knew the movie deals with a young Spielberg surrogate growing up in the 1960s and learning to make movies. I was blindsided and completely blown away by the emotional complexity in The Fabelmans.
As the title suggests, The Fabelmans deals as much with the family as with filmmaking. Perhaps even more so. Spielberg shows us that family, creativity, passion, work are all inexorably connected. Art can be beautiful and rewarding, but it always comes with a price.
I don't think Steven Spielberg has ever delivered a better picture. No, I am not forgetting Jaws or Schindler's List. None has hit me in the psyche as hard as The Fabelmans. It's a perfect movie.
Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is lush and precisely recreates the tone of the sixties. Longtime musical collaborator John Williams brings forth another exquisite score. Tony Kushner is the best writer Spielberg has ever worked with.
And then there is the cast. Paul Dano, as the father, is the archetypical sixties workaholic husband. Seth Rogen doesn't quite escape the brash stereotype character he has developed over the years, but he shows new depths in The Fabelmans. Judd Hirsch is both ominous and hilarious as a deadpan uncle. Gabriel LaBell plays the young Spielberg character and hits all the high and low notes perfectly. For God's sake don't miss David Lynch in one of the greatest cameos in movie history.
But, my God, Michelle Williams as the mother is the real show-stopper. I always liked her, but here she portrays an incredibly difficult character. She could lose audience sympathy if she didn't didn't play it just right. Her performance is as good or better than anything ever done by Cate Blanchett or Maryl Steep.
Yes, I loved The Fabelmans. It's not only my favorite Spielberg, this movie is in my top ten of all time. It's a hard movie that struck a little too close to home here and there, and it sometimes hurt to watch it, but that's what great art should do. The Fabelmans is also joyous and funny and sweet. This is a movie I will grow old with.
Written by Mark Sieber
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