The Fabelmans (2022)

The critic calls the film a dazzling and bittersweet movie memoir that Spielberg had to make, praising its brio and ability to make the mundane wondrous. It singles out the strong performances by Paul Dano, Michelle Williams and Gabriel LaBelle along with the nods to Spielberg's oeuvre.

The critic praises it as a fantastic, measured, and intimate look at Spielberg's upbringing and his development as a storyteller through film. It singles out the way the camera captures more than expected and the film's exploration of the relationship between art, audience, and personal truth.

The review describes a hugely empathetic tribute to Spielberg’s parents and the birth of his filmmaking passion, full of tenderness, humour and humanity. It praises the cast, especially Michelle Williams, and calls the film a glowing, transcendent piece of joy.

The review hails the film as a late-career masterwork and bittersweet origin story that locates the roots of Spielberg's cinema in family trauma and artistic compulsion. It singles out Michelle Williams' extravagant performance as Mitzi and the film's meta-references to Spielberg's life and work for particular note.

Spielberg comes close to a personal best in this luminous ramble through his early years, described as piercing, rollicking and marvelous. The film is slick and orchestrated yet funny, stirring and sad, leaving a recognizable bittersweet ache.

The review describes the film as one of Spielberg's most touching and mature pictures, a potent memory piece about an imperfect marriage delivered with compassion and restraint. It singles out the remarkable performances by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano for praise.

The critic calls it a transporting, empathetic childhood memoir that vividly captures Spielberg's early filmmaking insights and his parents' divorce without nostalgia. Performances by Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, and Gabriel LaBelle are singled out for their compassion and heart.

The critic calls it one of Spielberg’s most beautiful films, a tender family drama that looks back at his youth without sentimentality. She singles out Michelle Williams’ wounded, bittersweet performance as the emotional core.

The Fabelmans offers a gloriously tender origin story for Spielberg’s life and work, led by a wildly charming performance from Gabriel LaBelle as the young filmmaker. It dramatises and interrogates his artistic beginnings with subtle grace in camerawork and performances.

The critic finds the film a generous, open-hearted self-mythology that uses cinema to redeem personal truths, with Michelle Williams' raw, uncapturable performance as Mitzi singled out as the emotional core that defies Spielberg's usual archetypes.

The film portrays movies as both a technical adventure and an emotional force in a young filmmaker's life. It is a lightly plotted bildungsroman touched with the madness of love, offering laughs alongside deeper resonance.

The critic finds the film a tender autobiographical reverie with familiar Spielberg elements, praising Michelle Williams as the soul of the family drama. Spielberg softens some rough edges but delivers something wonderful in both large and small ways.

The director crafts a loving, heavily filtered homage to his formative years and complicated parental relationships. It is an endearing self-portrait full of polished anecdotes that holds the keys to much of his filmography, though somewhat sanitized.

The critic finds it a baggy but spectacular work that grapples with autobiography versus myth-making, with uneasy yet exhilarating depictions of cinema's power and a rare portrait of a loving but failing marriage. It highlights sublime scenes amid awkward structure and the warm vulnerability in Spielberg's uncertainty about telling his own story.

The critic finds Spielberg's autobiographical film disappointingly schematic and safe despite its candid revelations about the director's psyche. It singles out the restrained use of music and the insights into Spielberg's recurring themes of control and maternal reassurance for praise.

Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film is a delightfully personal whimsy that has dazzled awards voters but plays more to the awards gallery than to his fans. It is the most lavishly mounted home movie ever made, with its great strength and fatal weakness being its personal focus.

The critic hails it as one of Spielberg’s most moving and personal films, an introspective look at his childhood that reveals the origins of his cinematic magic. The cast, led by Gabriel LaBelle and Michelle Williams, and the recreation of filmmaking’s emotional power are singled out for praise.

The review highlights the film's warm, autobiographical nature and its exploration of the artist's lonely yet joyful path, praising the recreation of Spielberg's early films and the emotional depth, though noting some uneven performances.

The review calls it one of 2022’s great movies and one of Spielberg’s best, a heartfelt semi-autobiographical work that puts the director’s emotions fully on screen. It praises the empathetic exploration of family dynamics and the power of cinema as a central theme.

The review praises this intimate family drama as a poignant look at the forces shaping Spielberg, highlighting Michelle Williams' towering tour de force as Mitzi and the strong ensemble performances that make the emotional toll feel real.

The critic praises the film's cinematic quality and wry cynicism over sentimentality, noting how it explores filmmaking's dual role in revealing and distorting truth, while highlighting charming performances especially from the young lead.

The critic calls it a moving portrait of how a broken home formed one of cinema's great storytellers, praising the authentic emotional depth and the way Spielberg demonstrates cinema's power more effectively than similar films, with standout work from Dano and Williams.

The critic views the autobiographical film as a dense, essayistic victory lap that showcases Spielberg’s unique visual and thematic gifts despite feeling somewhat familiar. It highlights the inventive allusions to cinema history and the indelible supporting turn by Judd Hirsch.

The review presents the film as a bittersweet ode to dedicating one’s life to art, balancing the joy and personal costs of creative ambition. It singles out the vivid depiction of the filmmaking process and the performances of Michelle Williams and Paul Dano for their emotional depth.

The critic finds the film a sweet, personal memory piece that improves as it goes, becoming deeper and more moving with a strong finish. Michelle Williams delivers one of her most powerful performances as the mother figure.