Salt in Wound

5 stars out of 5

At some point in the near future I’ll likely dig into what’s real/what’s made up in this movie, but at the moment I honestly don’t care because I’ve just seen a basically perfect film and I want everybody to know! Based loosely on his own life, Steven Spielberg puts his all into this one — it’s his first screenplay credit since A.I. in 2001 — and it shows, and shines, in every frame of the film. There are no sharks, space aliens, or even the big easy heart-tugs which the heartless have critiqued him for. No, this time, Spielberg tackles the very stuff of American life itself with self-aware realism rather than a well-lit nostalgic glow. Will modern audiences flock to a mid-century Jewish-American family drama set in the western suburbs? Maybe not, but I’d guess Spielberg doesn’t really care at this point. It’s the story he needs to tell, and he does so with humor, compassion, humility, well-earned insight, and his undeniable mastery of filmmaking. And anyone who truly loves cinema will revel in peeking under the hood of one of its true geniuses, while recognizing a ton about growing up too.

Whew, that’s a doozy of a paragraph; thanks for hanging in there. Let’s talk nuts-and-bolts to lighten things up, eh? We meet very young Sammy Fabelman and his parents Burt and Mitzi, portrayed by Paul Dano and Michelle Williams. Dad’s 50s-era tech work relocates the family (which will eventually include 3 daughters), plus close pal “Uncle” Benny (Seth Rogen), all the way to Arizona. Sammy, meanwhile, has a growing love of making movies, first with his sisters, then with fellow scouts including the awesome Cheese from Reservation Dogs. Also Sammy wants to be Sam and is played the rest of the way by Gabriel LaBelle (no relation to Patti). Work advancement and family strife bring the Fabelmans to 1964 northern California where high-school Sam deals with bullies, anti-semitism, and girls, all the while toting that trusty movie camera.

We expect Michelle Williams to be great and she is, as the devoted wife and mom who tries to make room for her creative life and passions but still feels suffocated. And there’s a fairly subdued performance by Paul Dano (perhaps unwittingly modeling his character after my pal Phil?), as the hard-working, always smiling dad. Later he gets to show the strain of forever being the nice guy, and the toll it can take. But the revelation here is Gabriel LaBelle. Spielberg and co-writer Tony Kushner (Angels in America, and for Spielberg West Side Story, Lincoln, and Munich) really put Gabriel through the paces and he completely delivers. It’s a blend of supreme self-confidence and constant insecurity which is tough to capture but LaBelle does it. We believe him as Sam learns it’s easier to share his emotions via film rather than by talking, and we see his struggle to be an aware member of the family while increasingly living in his own head. But whatever the problems in his life, the camera is always his safe haven.

Rogen is reliably jokey-menschy, and I was very happy to see Judd Hirsch show up (and fun to see him depart) in a brief but key role as Mitzi’s brother, a fellow “creative” who makes a strong impression on Sam. Hirsch’s best performance, perhaps?

The tone of the film is consistently realistic all the way through until a final year-later time jump. Then a couple of pieces snap together a bit too easily… but only because Spielberg is setting us up for a genuinely fantastic ending. Right now this is easily the best movie of the year, and we’ll see if any late arrivals can even come close.