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The Fabelmans

  • 2022
  • PG-13
  • 2h 31m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
128K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,803
225
Steven Spielberg, Judd Hirsch, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Michelle Williams, Keeley Karsten, Tony Kushner, Birdie Borria, Alina Brace, Sophia Kopera, Mateo Zoryan, Gabriel LaBelle, Chloe East, and Julia Butters in The Fabelmans (2022)
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.
Play trailer1:31
38 Videos
99+ Photos
Coming-of-AgePeriod DramaShowbiz DramaTeen DramaDrama

Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the ... Read allGrowing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

  • Director
    • Steven Spielberg
  • Writers
    • Steven Spielberg
    • Tony Kushner
  • Stars
    • Michelle Williams
    • Gabriel LaBelle
    • Paul Dano
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.5/10
    128K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,803
    225
    • Director
      • Steven Spielberg
    • Writers
      • Steven Spielberg
      • Tony Kushner
    • Stars
      • Michelle Williams
      • Gabriel LaBelle
      • Paul Dano
    • 536User reviews
    • 348Critic reviews
    • 85Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 7 Oscars
      • 32 wins & 299 nominations total

    Videos38

    Official Trailer 2
    Trailer 1:31
    Official Trailer 2
    In Theatres Nov. 23
    Trailer 0:31
    In Theatres Nov. 23
    In Theatres Nov. 23
    Trailer 0:31
    In Theatres Nov. 23
    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:26
    Official Trailer
    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:26
    Official Trailer
    The Fabelmans
    Trailer 2:32
    The Fabelmans
    Oscars 2023 Best Picture Nominees
    Clip 1:31
    Oscars 2023 Best Picture Nominees

    Photos619

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    Top cast81

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    Michelle Williams
    Michelle Williams
    • Mitzi Fabelman
    Gabriel LaBelle
    Gabriel LaBelle
    • Sammy Fabelman
    Paul Dano
    Paul Dano
    • Burt Fabelman
    Judd Hirsch
    Judd Hirsch
    • Uncle Boris
    Seth Rogen
    Seth Rogen
    • Bennie Loewy
    Mateo Zoryan
    Mateo Zoryan
    • Younger Sammy Fabelman
    • (as Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord)
    Keeley Karsten
    Keeley Karsten
    • Natalie Fabelman
    Alina Brace
    Alina Brace
    • Younger Natalie Fabelman
    Julia Butters
    Julia Butters
    • Reggie Fabelman
    Birdie Borria
    Birdie Borria
    • Younger Reggie Fabelman
    Sophia Kopera
    Sophia Kopera
    • Lisa Fabelman
    Jeannie Berlin
    Jeannie Berlin
    • Hadassah Fabelman
    Robin Bartlett
    Robin Bartlett
    • Tina Schildkraut
    Sam Rechner
    Sam Rechner
    • Logan Hall
    Oakes Fegley
    Oakes Fegley
    • Chad Thomas
    Chloe East
    Chloe East
    • Monica Sherwood
    Isabelle Kusman
    Isabelle Kusman
    • Claudia Denning
    Chandler Lovelle
    Chandler Lovelle
    • Renee
    • Director
      • Steven Spielberg
    • Writers
      • Steven Spielberg
      • Tony Kushner
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews536

    7.5128.4K
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    Featured reviews

    8Benjamin-M-Weilert

    A thoughtful if not slightly long autobiography of Steven Spielberg

    Steven Spielberg has been directing films for so many decades that it's actually a little surprising that the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans (2022) took this long to materialize. Because of his years of success as a filmmaker, I already knew some details of Spielberg's rise to the successful director that he is today. Granted, I'm not sure how much of the family drama in The Fabelmans is a direct influence on Spielberg's life or if he manufactured it for the movie itself. Still, it is interesting to see the early budding talent presented in this movie and be able to extrapolate to movies like Jaws (1975), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and Schindler's List (1993).

    Perhaps my one qualm with this movie is that it's a bit too long. I understand the desire to show the entire life of Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) to understand the context of the origins of his filmmaking passion, but there could have been much shorter ways to show these moments instead of dedicating almost the entire first act to something that was much less exciting than the rest of the film. Even if it started in the second act, The Fabelmans easily captures that struggle between family and living the life of a dedicated creative.

    I really appreciated the conversation about how pursuing a creative passion can really be a challenge for an individual's personal life. Similar to how the leads in La La Land (2016) had to choose between themselves and their dreams, The Fabelmans shows how having an additional way to communicate (in this case, via filmmaking) can sometimes break through barriers and expose hard truths. The unblinking eye of the camera often sees more than we want, whether the bipolar disorder and affair of a mother or how a bully sees themselves as the hero.

    A thoughtful if not slightly long autobiography of Steven Spielberg, I give The Fabelmans 4.0 stars out of 5.
    8jaysonpajaronvistal

    A love letter to filmmakers and cinephiles.

    The Fabelmans is both a coming-of-age story and a love letter to filmmaking; calling this movie a labor of love is an understatement. The Fabelman is Spielberg's most personal film ever as he shared how he developed his passion for filmmaking while demonstrating the power of escapism the movies brought to his life. Steven Spielberg understands that love for art is not just a hobby but also an expression of one's self and exploration of humankind. Steven Spielberg was able to articulate himself in a very raw yet profound way with his film, The Fabelmans. It is good to see him tell the story of his life while recognizing that his family is far from perfect and how a young man deals with one family crisis and overcoming it through the power of filmmaking. If you share the same love for film, like everyone here, you would certainly appreciate this movie. But, the movie is far from perfect as most of Spielberg's films.

    The movie focuses on Sammy, played wonderfully by Gabriel LaBelle, which sometimes comes off as a bit pretentious as a character. But, Gabriel LaBelle was great in this movie that he showed the emotional depth of the character, and his fascination with filmmaking translates to the audience. Gabriel LaBelle must have felt extreme pressure while playing this character, considering that he's playing one of the best filmmakers of all time, but he was able to give justice to the character at no fault. However, it was Michelle Williams that stood out in this film---to say her performance is phenomenal is diminishing---she was terrific and captivating as Mitzi, a free-spirited mother with an extreme love for art. Paul Dano was great in this film, as well as Seth Rogen. Also, Judd Hirsch is for sure a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination, only in the movie for less than 10 minutes, but his character is pivotal for Sammy's growth.

    During the third act of the film, it kinda lost its footing, the movie became dragging, cliche, and pretentious. But, The Fabelmans is far from Spielberg's best work, like Schindler's List or ET, but the movie works as a coming-of-age story that delivers more of the director's insights. The Fabelmans is a charming and poignant anecdote about life glimpsed through the camera and how those occasions shaped one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Although the movie is predictable and does not come with surprises. The Fabelmans still works without depending on glitzy special effects, an excessive amount of violence, or shock value, but because of its great direction, performances, sincerity, and authenticity from the writing perspective, it resulted in The Fabelmans being one of this year's best films. We can see that it's personal, but it feels like the movie is made for us as well.
    8jaredpahl

    Dear Diary, It's Steven

    After 50 years of making movies, Steven Spielberg is still, in the 2020s, finding new muscles to work. His semi-autobiopic, The Fabelmans, is different in style, reach, and aim, than anything Spielberg has ever made. The consummate ringmaster has never helmed a film so modest. And for a director whose personal attachments are spread all over his filmography, The Fabelmans may also be his most intimate.

    The story of Sam Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) is the story of Steven Spielberg, Jewish kid from Small Town USA, lover and later maker of movies. Sam shares with Steven three younger sisters, an eccentric concert pianist mother, an electrical engineer father, and a nearly identical path to movie directing. The names might be different, but obviously The Fabelmans is a dramatization of Steven Spielberg's childhood. It's certainly not our first indication of what the director thinks of such things as his parents' divorce, his interpersonal relationships with his family, or the images, moments, and memories that inspired him to make movies. Spielberg has brilliantly disguised these themes within his genre films; in alien invasion movies, dinosaur pictures, science fiction noirs, and family fantasy adventures. But with The Fabelmans, here comes the full reveal. It is a movie directly about family. His family. One must assume The Fabelmans is Steven Spielberg's last word on the subjects that have bewitched him throughout his career.

    The Fabelmans is kitchen sink drama all the way; no bells, no whistles, no magic realism or distracting style. In other words, no distance from these characters. The ones we have here are all quite well-realized. Paul Dano as Burt, the Fableman patriarch, is a sweetheart; surprisingly real despite an affected subservient speech pattern. Dano's character could have been an embarrassing caricature of the "no fun, get a job" father, but he comes out well-intentioned and completely three dimensional in a thankless role. Michelle Williams has the showier job playing mother Mitzy. She doesn't fumble the challenge, and in fact carves out a memorable personality from the more artistically inclined of Sam's parents. In the middle is Gabriel LaBelle, the latest model of the square-jawed, brown-eyed, young male muse that Spielberg has been searching for for decades now. Like Ansel Elgort, Tye Sheridan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeremy Irvine, and Shia LaBeouf before him (the man has a type), he's good enough. LaBelle is a likeable personality, a truly important metric for a performance like this, and he anchors the film admirably. Will it be that elusive star-making performance Spielberg has clearly been wanting from one of his young proteges? No. But it's a nice one.

    A few supporting players stop in for extended cameos. Judd Hirsh's quick turn as Uncle Boris may very well earn him an Oscar nomination. Hirsch has the classic showpiece monologue-two of them to be exact-and the sort of built-up respect needed for such a role. Young Chloe East on the other hand is a real discovery as Sam's high school girlfriend. Just when the movie needs a little energy, she comes in with the good stuff. Her's is a bright and living performance that never feels put on. Seth Rogan is there as well. A risky, maybe inspired casting choice, he's not bad.

    The Fabelmans is practically structureless, even at times aimless. There is no agreed-upon thesis that the movie is working toward, nor is there a feeling Spielberg is coaxing us into experiencing. As a cinematic project, it does not play to its director's strengths whatsoever. But we've seen the resiliency of Steven Spielberg before. Desert animal he truly is; able to adapt to changing landscapes and external challenges. By his standards, this is a tiny movie. Not the first quiet, artistic coming-of-age movie (in one of the movie's few missteps, it trots out a clichéd bullying subplot that drags the quality of the production way down), but in experienced, versatile hands, one of the very best.

    The Fabelmans certainly won't blow the doors off the box office, and for many, its sincere love for the craft of filmmaking will go completely unregistered. That narrow appeal, however, is precisely why The Fabelmans is destined to become a very special movie for people like me. I had my own 'Greatest Show on Earth' experience at six years old, when I saw Sam Raimi's Spider-man in one of the great big theaters where my aunt lived. Later, after I had discovered more of my favorites, developed a taste for the movies, I made my own. My cousins starred in one Jurassic Park rip-off as a team of scientists pursued by dragons in Shanghai. I became a film snob in college, and made short films with the guiding help of a professor who thought I had potential. I got a job as a documentarian and later directed a commercial or two of my own. All the while, I had my own family, who happen to be a lot like The Fabelmans, there to support and sometimes to trivialize, but whom I love with everything I have. Oh, it is sappy to talk about how personal The Fabelmans feels to me. I'm sure mine will not be the only review emphasizing how relatable this film is to someone with the artistic itch. But I assume I'm much like Sam Fabelman, and Steven Spielberg too, when I say that movies are my therapy. Our careers may never compare, but at least we'll share that.

    Mazal Tov.

    87/100.
    7slzoras

    A comforting and unchallenging watch

    There is a tendency these last years for directors to create movies about their love of movies. This movie is Spielberg's attempt, and I can confirm that it's pretty well achieved. You can feel the "true story" in the ways in which this coming-of-age story avoids melodramatic teenage cliches and tropes. The protagonist is simply a good guy. There are no real antagonists except... I guess a couple of bullies...? It's a story that simply proves Spielberg's unmatched proficiency in the language of cinema: the pacing, the directing, is very refined and well-crafted, there's a lot of sentimentality that is efficiently conveyed and the visuals are always engaging in one way or another.

    Spielberg is a weird director, one that basically is simply very good at doing what he does, he talks the language of movies, Hollywood movies. He's one of those producers that turns every pop song into a hit. He doesn't have a strong sense of story, he lives and breaths in the Hollywood mainstream, and the movie portrays this very well, it shows how he is inspired by action movies, or epic movies, any entertaining story. His alter ego in the film is a very normal lead character, a very Hollywood-type of character. The best moments in the story are the interaction with his family, his complex relationship with his mother (really beautifully performed). I don't find a lot else to say, really. The only nitpick I have to offer is that the main character wears these extremely distracting brown contact lenses (I suppose to make his eyes look "genetically accurate) and I don't understand how necessary that was. The movie is simply a very conventionally well told story. Also the Lynch cameo is admittedly a moving tribute both to him and to his character of John Ford. It's slow in parts but not grating, some moments are chuckle-worthy, some are moving. It's a testament to Spielberg's insane versatility and his ability to just serve the medium of Hollywood films. I'm probably going to forget this movie in a while, but I will gladly revisit it. It's a cute movie, very cozy and feel-good, a nice Christmas family watch.
    7moritzherz

    Every upcoming filmmaker should watch this!

    Steven Spielberg made some of the best movies ever made. Now he made one about his early life, his way of becoming a filmmaker. And this is not his best film and not his most important one, but his most personal one.

    The story is fascinating, especially the way filmmaking is portrayed here is extraordinary. This is a love letter to cinema and you will be moved watching it, if you are a cineast like me.

    Everybody who's dreaming about becoming a filmmaker some day has to watch this picture. It was made for you, by Mr. Spielberg with love and the hope of inspiring the next generation as he was inspired by directors from his time.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Steven Spielberg said his parents had been "nagging" him to put them on the big screen prior to their deaths. "They were actually nagging me, 'When are you going to tell that story about our family, Steve?' And so this was something they were very enthusiastic about," he said. He also shared what finally prompted him to make The Fabelmans: "I started seriously thinking, if I had to make one movie I haven't made yet, something that I really want to do on a very personally atomic level, what would that be? And there was only one story I really wanted to tell." He also said The Fabelmans is "the first coming-of-age story I've ever told." "My life with my mom and dad taught me a lesson, which I hope this film in a small way imparts," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "Which is, when does a young person in a family start to see his parents as human beings? In my case, because of what happened between the ages of 7 and 18, I started to appreciate my mom and dad not as parents but as real people."
    • Goofs
      Younger Sammy Fabelman's eyes are blue, while the older Sammy Fablelman's eyes are brown.
    • Quotes

      John Ford: When the horizon's at the bottom, it's interesting. When the horizon's at the top, it's interesting. When the horizon's in the middle, it's boring as shit. Now, good luck to you. And get the fuck out of my office!

    • Crazy credits
      Two dedications to Spielberg's real life parents Leah Adler and Arnold Spielberg appear after the closing credits.
    • Connections
      Featured in Amanda the Jedi Show: This Movie was Shockingly Terrible - Best and Worst of TIFF 2022 (2022)
    • Soundtracks
      The Greatest Show on Earth
      from The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

      Written by Victor Young, Ned Washington

      Performed by the Paramount Studios Band

      Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

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    FAQ20

    • How long is The Fabelmans?Powered by Alexa
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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 23, 2022 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • India
    • Official sites
      • Facebook
      • Instagram
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Los Fabelman
    • Filming locations
      • 12908 Bailey Street, Whittier, California, USA(Monte's camera shop: Bennie tries to offer Sammy a film camera)
    • Production companies
      • Amblin Entertainment
      • Amblin Partners
      • Reliance Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $40,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $17,348,945
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $161,579
      • Nov 13, 2022
    • Gross worldwide
      • $45,614,213
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 31 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • Dolby Surround 7.1
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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