The Fabelmans, the latest movie from Steven Spielberg, has made its global debut at Toronto International Film Festival. The movie is the first time the director has properly explored his early years on screen – Gabriel LaBelle and Mateo Zoryna Francis-Deford play sixteen and seven-year-old versions of Sammy Fabelman, an aspiring filmmaker based on Spielberg, while Paul Dano and Michelle Williams are fictionalized versions of Spielberg's parents.
The Fabelmans also marks the first time since 2001 that Spielberg will be involved in writing the screenplay for one of his movies – his last screenwriting venture was for AI: Artificial Intelligence. He's co-writing this movie with Tony Kushner, who previously penned the Spielberg movies Lincoln and West Side Story. But what are the critics saying about the semi-autobiographical movie? We've got a roundup of all the latest reviews, straight out of Toronto.
Polygon
"In an age obsessed with character origin stories, the early word on Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical movie The Fabelmans made it look like he was out to join the cinematic trend. But his crowd-pleasing, coming-of-age-tale doesn’t fit neatly to that box, or any other. His deeply personal narrative isn’t wholly an autobio, a greatest-hits replay of a singular filmmaker’s career, or a cliché ode to moviemaking. The Fabelmans is a vulnerable reach into the past, to heal a wound that seems to still be as tender as the day it opened decades ago, in spite of the bursts of comedy and the measured ruminations on display."
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Entertainment Weekly
"Because it's Spielberg, it's all beautifully, meticulously rendered, and not a little glazed in wistful sentiment: an infinitely tender, sometimes misty ode to the people who raised him and the singular passion for cinema that shaped him. The mist burns away, though, as the movie goes on, in part because Michelle Williams gives such a fine-grained and devastating performance as Sammy's mother, Mitzi, a fierce, fragile woman whose own thwarted dreams have landed her in a life she doesn't recognize. She could have been a world-class concert pianist, or maybe a dancer; instead she's a suburban housewife in early-1950s New Jersey, married to a faultlessly kind man named Burt (Paul Dano), a scientist who adores her, and mother to Sammy and his three younger sisters."
Variety
"To say that Spielberg is performing at the top of his game is no hyperbole. This dramatic opus, which pulls at the heartstrings, could bring Spielberg his third directing statuette (after Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan), and maybe his second for best picture (after Schindler’s List). The Fabelmans” is the story of Sam Fabelman, a young boy who falls in love with cinema, but finds himself fighting family turmoil to keep his dream alive. Spielberg’s direction is the glue that holds The Fabelmans together, and the film touches on many of his landmark styles, nodding to E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saving Private Ryan and more. The script, by Tony Kushner and Spielberg, brilliantly illustrates the birth of a filmmaker, and could net Spielberg his first nom for screenwriting."
The Guardian
"Post-Roma we’ve seen a glut of big auteurs going small to bring something of their own previously unexplored past to life, toeing a fine line between vulnerable investigation and vainglorious indulgence. Despite his often unfairly simplified association with full-throated sentimentality, Spielberg’s attempt is actually relatively restrained and rooted in reality, avoiding the obvious cloy that could so easily come with the territory. The script, from Spielberg and Tony Kushner, speeds past the easy potholes and takes us somewhere less expected, focusing on smaller, not-as-easily explained emotions rather than the swell of the big. 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."
Deadline
"Performance-wise the casting could not be better. Williams is astonishing as Mitzi, a mother trying desperately to keep her family together as she can’t help but follow her heart. Williams is gut-wrenchingly great here. Dano is 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. Both the younger Sammy (DeFord) and the primary older Sammy (LaBelle) look remarkably like Spielberg did at their ages and are equally excellent. LaBelle is, in a word, sensational throughout, a young man with a love for movies, but tortured by growing pains and a family drifting apart."
The Fabelmans arrives on the big screen on November 23, 2022 in the US, and then January 27, 2023 in the UK. In the meantime, check out our guide to the rest of 2022's most exciting movie release dates.
