Looking at possible films to go see today and stumbled upon The Fabelmans.
Pure Oscar bait with the November release, being a film about making films, anti-Semitism and Spielberg? Or will I actually enjoy the movie rather than just appreciate it?
Go ahead and spoiler box anything crucial, please.
Edit: adding the trailer here The Fabelmans | Official Trailer [HD] - YouTube
I’ve got it on my list of films to watch. It’s at 93% critic’s score and 86% audience score at Rotten Tomatoes.
Advance word (I know people who have seen it) is that it’s very good, but not the warm-and-fuzzy “love letter to cinema” people might expect given Spielberg’s (oversimplified) reputation. It’s more nuanced and more confessional, and because it’s not as expected it will inevitably be somewhat divisive among mainstream-type audiences and critics. Serious film nerds should appreciate it, though.
In an interview recently, Spielberg said that while it wasn’t an autobiography, it amounted to $40 million of therapy for him. He had a complicated childhood, and his parents broke up when he was a kid.
I had read somewhere it was going to stream free (with commercials) on Roku, but that hasn’t happened yet, and it’s not showing in my local theater if it ever will. Sad face. It will eventually stream somewhere, one would think. The John Willams soundtrack and poster art is available on Amazon.