THE FABELMANS : A Personal Journey - Steven Spielberg reflects on how THE FABELMANS is inspired by his own personal story and family. growing love for, and skill in, the filmmaking process. Sammy's films always, in some way, reflect his personal state, express his emotions, and offer Languages/Sound: English (Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 for Bonus Content), French Canadian (Dolby Digital 5.1), and Latin American Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1) There comes a point in everyone’s life, no matter what the profession, when you’ve succeeded. You’ve made it. There’s not a lot left to prove. Steven Spielberg crossed that bridge about 30 years ago, but he continues to make films that are both commercially satisfying as well as deeply personal. With The Fabelmans, it’s more of the latter (for obvious reasons), but it didn’t strike me as some of the typical over-sentimentalized junk that Spielberg has thrown our way over the years. That said it does feel a bit manufactured. It feels like the type of film that was made to win awards. It’s a got a great cast led by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano (yes, the awkward teen from Little Miss Sunshine is now playing roles as a father). Likely audiences know what to expect from a film like this and I’m guessing if it’s up your alley, it’ll deliver. Video: How’s it look? Plot: What’s it about? Video: How’s it look? Audio: How’s it sound? Supplements: What are the extras? The Bottom Line Plot: What’s it about?

As for Spielberg being washed up, he has way more hits, way more undisputed masterpieces, and way more money than everyone on this thread combined, so clearly he’s not that washed up. His last movie still earned more than all our last movies. We first meet Sammy Fabelman as a young boy. His parents, Mitzi (Michelle Williams) and Burt (Paul Dano), take him to see his first film, The Greatest Show on Earth. The experience is transformative. Before long, he is playing with an 8mm camera, staging crashes with his toy trains. Then the movie jumps ahead to his teenage years. Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) makes elaborate Western and war movies with his friends. Artistic-minded Mitzi encourages the activity, recognizing her son’s creative mind. Burt, a science whiz working on an important advancement in computers, refuses to see it as anything more than a hobby. We follow Sammy though his journey and the various obstacles he has to overcome like the unhappiness in his parents marriage as well as his heritage. The screenplay by Spielberg and Tony Kushner shows Sammy’s growing fascination with filmmaking as the Fabelman family dynamic plays out. Balancing humor and pathos, it moves briskly and never feels padded despite its 2 1/2-hour running time. With big studio films of late dealing with fantasy and comic book characters, it’s refreshing to see a story about real people. As co-writers, Spielberg and Kushner have fashioned an engaging script. medium itself for reflection and its artistic merit not as simply a collection of moving still images but also as a depiction of how the human heart andBut this isn't a story of how Spielberg found his love for films. It also tells the sad tale of his parent's divorce and how it affected him and his family. Sam's father Burt is a gentile genius working on the incoming age of computers and his best friend Benny has been alongside him every step of the way. His mother Mitzi is the budding artist in the family who could have been the next great piano player but had a family instead. That doesn't stop her from encouraging her kids, especially Sam from finding their own creative endeavors. It becomes clear though that there's something beneath the happy surface with Mitzi as Sam undertakes more movies, the family moving across the country, and dealing with anti-semitic bullies at school.

the presentation. Beyond a few moments of amplified audio, such as two key early film scenes (the model trains maneuvering through the speakers, a

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Family Dynamics– This 15-minute segment looks at how each actor was chosen to play someone from Spielberg’s life. THE FABELMANS: A Personal Journey - Steven Spielberg reflects on how THE FABELMANS is inspired by his own personal story and family. weaves together several narrative elements that explore the boy's influences both behind the camera and before the march of life as he enters into lens sees, but how it reflects his life beyond the mere capture of a moment. One of the film's key plot points, it would seem, is as much in how Family dominates The Fabelmans, but from the opening scene, in which six-year-old Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryan) attends his first movie with his parents Burt (Paul Dano) and Mitzi (Michelle Williams), film plays a large part in the story. And is there anyone better equipped than Spielberg to transmit all the emotion, power, and influence of motion pictures? From wonder, excitement, fear, and laughter to documenting events, capturing stolen moments, exposing hard, hidden truths, and creating an indelible illusion, all the magic, mirth, deception, and reality that make film such a fascinating medium are on full display.