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Film Reviews

Film Review: The Fabelmans (2022)

STORY

The Fabelmans are a Jewish family that lives in New Jersey. One night, Mitzi and Burt take their son Sammy to a cinema to watch ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. Sammy takes a special interest in the action sequences and gets overwhelmed by watching a train crashing scene. This moment of his life begins to shape his fondness for filmmaking but the domestic troubles of the dysfunctional family frequently interrupt his purpose in life.

With time, he understands by working with the cameras that shooting films from different angles gives more exposure and can fetch heavy consequences.

INTRODUCTION

Sometimes, you are so successful that it becomes important to let people know that reaching this grand stage and receiving a standing ovation comes with a price. Passion for something drives you to difficult paths. There are more chances of dislikes and refusals than acceptance especially if you are white in the United States of America but not Christian.

Shaming over faith, face and name was the norm after the Great War because many European immigrants moved to America. I am not talking about the Black history here, that is a separate chapter that highlights the extreme racism and cruelty over more than 300 years. Here, I am talking about the Jewish immigrants who suffered tough times but later on, progressed.

REVIEW

The Fabelmans is the latest play from the never-aging artistry of the illustrious career of Steven Spielberg. It is his most personal film to date because Sammy Fabelman is him.

The Fabelmans is based on the Spielbergs where the legendary director opens up in all honesty about his first crush on filmmaking, the parental bridge that collapsed, the choice his parents asked him to make other than filming, the fire that ignited by distrust, and much more.

The Fabelmans are every household that relates their troubles with them. It is a drama that points out that the relationship of humans with mistakes is infinite to waste precious time in regretting something that has passed. It will hurt you all your life but the passion for something will drive you through it.

Because, it is a hybrid of psychology and philosophy that when you love something that begins to construct your life on that, the herbs of agitation and pains of the troubling past connect with it. And I observed this theory of mine perfectly dramatized in ‘The Fabelmans’. As much as Sammy Fabelman grew on his passion, the subjectivity of life’s precious discomforts become more visible in his work.

TURNING POINT

Can you observe what was the turning point in the film? Where did Sammy find chutzpah? If we simplify the plot, the family blessed and broke him as the story continued to age. But where was the moment he came to the senses that propelled him to follow his heart like never before? It was when Uncle Boris gave him a life lesson.

That was a significant moment in Sammy’s life. The words that fall from Uncle Boris’ mouth were that of Merlin. Whatever he uttered became true in the remainder of the film.

“Art will give you crowns and laurels on earth. But, it will tear your heart out and leave you lonely. You’ll be a shanda for your loved ones.”

A kind of life lesson only an old-timer can utter. Judd Hirsch has given a performance of a lifetime. Imagine the weight of a performance that gets an actor nominated for an Oscar who appeared in the film for ONLY NINE MINUTES. That body language and mental strength at the age of 87 are so hard to observe nowadays.

METICULOUS DRAMATIC SCREENPLAY

The biggest plus of the film being so emotionally deep to the director is that the film doesn’t struggle to settle for emotions. In a space of 150 minutes, the story of Fabelmans grows with a meticulous screenplay. The first dinner talk, the siblings’ experimental plays, and the tornado scene that develops Mitzi’s mental showdown that had created doubts for the audience before.

Mitzi’s nightgown dance on the camping trip was so meaningful and highlighted the behavioral attitudes of different characters that actually grew throughout the film. Even before the daughter ran to her, we all felt awkward.

Sammy discovering the shocking moment in the reel was so hard-hitting. The fluctuation of the mother-son relation was well dramatized. Spielberg dramatized the sudden intensity so perfectly. The mother-son violence sequence was a jaw-dropper.

The anti-Semetic bullying scenes at the school were blood-boiling. How helpless a boy can be? I am surprised that no one took action for that.

And those Sam-Monica moments were every young spectator’s warm sentiments building the hormones and uncontrollable feelings. Richard Linklater! Was that you directing those Sam-Monica scenes? In fact, the entire high school dramatization was so Richard Linklater class!

And this is the beauty of Steven Spielberg’s direction. The continuity of his dramas perfectly grows on the audience. I want to especially praise the camera work of Janusz Kaminski who helped in emphasizing the detailing of some critical moments in the film. Like Sammy walking towards his room after his mother hits him. And the zoomed shots of Sammy’s face when his doubts skyrocket. And when Mitzi is exposed to Sam’s discovery in a one-shot assists the actress to display some incredible fall of emotions.

PERFORMANCES

Speaking of actress, Michelle Williams has given a stunning performance that has everything an actress requires to exceed our expectations. And if I am not wrong, she has mostly been like that. Maybe this is not her best performance as she has done that quite often but I opine to believe that she is unlucky if she doesn’t win the Oscar once again.

And I must mention how brilliantly every actor performed. And when I say ‘every’, that includes the young siblings. Just watch both the sisters when the parents announce the bad news. Good to see Seth Rogen in quite a different setup. Gabrielle LaBelle is an exciting find and was a very impressive performance of Sam Fabelman. I am not forgetting Paul Dano at all but there wasn’t that much about his performance.

CLOSING REMARKS

The Fabelmans is a reminder that successful people fail to leave melancholy behind. The film convinces us that struggle and fate are bound together. The wait is pretty long but if you stick with your passion, the opportunity eventually knocks on the door.

The film successfully proves that the parents do make mistakes and that too, critical mistakes. And children mentally suffer. You have to let things go instead of poisoning them for a lifetime.

‘The Fabelmans’ is an accomplishment in filmmaking. I’ll say that this is the best coming-of-age film since Boyhood.

RATING: 8.8/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Manchester By The Sea (2016)

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Manchester By The Sea is a mosaic, a poetry, a philosophy of emotions blended with a series of tragic and distress events. To be very honest, the story is ordinary but the screenplay is a luminary. A janitor in Quincy, Casey Affleck, has passed some tragic moments and while he is still struggling, fate calls for another mournful news from Manchester-by-the-Sea of the passing of his brother, Kyle Chandler. With the passing, the lawyer reads the will and informs Casey that the deceased has made him the guardian of his nephew Lucas Hedges which came as a surprise.

At a slow but decent pace, the director Kenneth Lonergan is the author and a humble storyteller who mumbles the human behaviors involved in a single blink. He is smart enough to bring the humor out when the timing of a minor incident bestows. He is a traveler of groaning age who shows how that aging man shelters the false hopes of parenting in someone’s place. He presents the core character in a way that is pale to relationships but strives to necessitate what has been broken and burnt from the fire. The director simply brings the magic and music from the silence of shriek audible enough to understand the destruction of his heart. Us viewers have to observe the happenings in the film and feel sorry for him.

Like Fences, which speaks about the humans who are ready to lose or break someone, the outcome of this film is easily the gem of a drama. There are two dramatic sequences which burn and melts you. One, when Casey describes the haunting past to the police officers and later unsuccessfully attempts suicide on the spot. And two, when Casey meets his ex-wife Michelle Williams years after the divorce on the street.

Another excellency of the screenplay is the ‘Understanding’ between the ages and emotions involved between the two. The uncle-nephew chemistry is marvelous. There are an annoyance and a fury in the communication between them which downpours the sweat of ego or chutzpah, not mentally accepting each other at all.

All the actors involved in the project have performed very well but it is Casey who does the talking and deserves a standing ovation. I haven’t watched Casey’s films enough in the past to adjudge his performance as the best to date but the character he went on to play here is the true salvation and modus operandi. Manchester By The Sea is the aftermath of the death in the family. If life is an art exhibition, then this masterpiece is one of the most speaking pictures with the darkest and honest color of shades which, to the viewers, is widely acceptable.

Ratings: 8.7/10

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