The movie is a reminisence of Steven spielberg through his childhood years as a tribute to himself like many famed directors have done earlier.
It shows us a glimpse into spielbergs upbringing and how his interests piqued as well as his initial endeavours. What sets out to create a rich intricate array of his experience turns into a quagmire of distraught family relations, school bullying and love in high school often leaning too much into these. The movie lacks a sense of direction and it gets weird especially the part about his mothers illicit relationship. If this is an attempt at scratching out a memoir it is not upto speilbergs standards
The ensemble is lack lustre. Mr Fabelman "the father" is a techno-genius who as usual doesn't connect with his emotions. His wife "the mother" on the other hand is an artistic woman who sacrificed everything for a
familly. Mr. Fabelmans best friend is "Uncle bennie" who later on courts his spouse. Cast
especially Michelle williams as Mrs.Fabelman was not really connecting with the role and felt overused. Aside from Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy Fabelman(aka Spielberg) and a more than dull Paul Dano, I don't think anyone is worth mentioning. Again could have been much more.
Direction of the movie is brilliant. No doubt there. The scenes were actually good lest
substance. In the words of Naseeruddhin shah there was no "Dum".
I believe cinematography is an art of conveying things as the creator intended. Judging from the fact that this was an autobiographical venture, the takes were far from reality. A lot was amiss. Like you can slap me hard if that's how S.S lived.
Couldn't tell any special effects usage maybe that's beacause I have never really understood
their presence thanks to years of over media consumption.
The movie is laggy towards the end. As uncanny as it sounds, there was engagement until Mrs.Fabelman's affair ended, rather unremarkably. It felt bumpy and convoluted afterwards.
Mediocre dialogues but hey its not about the dialogues. The movie didn't get weighed down
due to this.
7/10