My first theater outing with my parents in 16 months had to be planned pretty far in advance. What could interest them this much without relevance to music? Why, my namesake, Steven Spielberg. And this is not just popular but loosely autobiographical.
In the early '50s, roughly seven-year-old Sam Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord, later Gabriel LaBelle) nervously goes to a movie theater for the first time. The depiction of a train crash stuns him, and his coping mechanism is to replicate it with model trains. His mother, Mitzi (Michelle Williams), asks him to video-record the crash so he can watch repeatedly without further damages. Moviemaking, with help from his three younger sisters and fellow Boy Scouts, becomes his passion over the years, thanks to a sense of control. But as the title implies, this isn't just his story, and conflicts with his mom and dad, Burt (Paul Dano), threaten his trajectory.
This film is dedicated to Spielberg's recently deceased parents, but that doesn't prevent a warts-and-all take on them. Burt's an engineer and wishes his son had a head for STEM. He recognizes a few similarities in what they do, but he still sees Sam's devoted projects as a not-so-useful hobby. Furthermore, as Burt's career advances, he keeps the family moving regardless of how anyone else feels. Eventually, this brings Sam to a school with open anti-Semites, tho he also meets a warped Christian girl with a Jewish fetish. (It's PG-13; don't worry too much.)
Mitzi might annoy Sam even more overall. He picks up on signs of marital infidelity with Burt's alleged best friend (Seth Rogen), leading to silent resentment. Then her stress crosses into depression and apparent insanity, requiring therapy.
Nevertheless, the movie sympathetically recognizes more than one side to the story. Each party has their reasons, and they never really stop loving each other. If anyone can be called a villain, it's the most unhinged school bully (Oakes Fegley).
I had watched the 2017 documentary Spielberg without reviewing it here. It was good at rekindling my admiration for the director's works but had little to say about his youth. For that, I had my memory of a biographical book I read a few pages of in childhood. I saw a slight match-up herein, but it was good to fill in the rest.
Does it feel authentic? To a point. I understand it comes very close to the truth, but the style of presentation feels oh so Hollywood. You know, magnified. Only occasionally is the over-the-topness played for laughs. Typical for Spielberg, but somehow, this stands out to me more when the basis is his personal history. I suppose it's fitting in a meta way, much like Tim Burton's approach to Ed Wood or, for a recent example, Eric Appel's to Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
It occurs to me that while Spielberg, who turns 76 this month, has another project in progress, TF might very well be his last. It may not be a crowning achievement by his standards, but it would make a suitable capstone. If you've ever been touched by his movies or just want a tale of reaching for dreams, by all means, see this one.
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