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“The Fabelman” Movie Review by Rafy Mediavilla (@Rmediavilla) #TIFF22

“The Fabelman” Movie Review by Rafy Mediavilla (@Rmediavilla) #TIFF22

Young Sammy Fabelman falls in love with movies after his parents take him to see “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Armed with a camera, Sammy starts to make his own films at home, much to the delight of his supportive mother.

Honestly, The Fabelman, wasn’t a movie that was actually on my radar, as that’s one movie that I had to watch during my coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival 2022. In fact, I believe the film was one of the last movies that I watch to end my coverage of the festival, and one of the reasons I wasn’t really excited to watch the movie is because I felt this trailers and the promos already gave too much away and because I already knew what the buzz around it was and Steven Spielberg being at the helm of the project, I kind of already knew what he was going for.

The second that I came out of the theater from watching the movie, I started to enumerate the things that I did love about the movie and that I just felt didn’t work for me. it goes without saying Story wise this movie is a love letter to cinema, to the golden years of cinema, it’s a love letter to people that want to make it in cinema to the filmmakers to cinephiles to those people that live and breathe this industry. This means that average Joes and Janes, or people in general, will not enjoy this movie because in essence this movie is not made for them.

With that being said, I consider myself someone that is a fan of the cinema but also understands what the general audience wants to see when it comes to the theaters, so I understand the whole theater experience, And I believe that if the general audience gives The Fabelman a chance they will agree with me regarding all the really good stuff that came out from this movie.

The Fabelman is the type of movie that inspires you regardless of if you live and breathe this Industry. I think the story of Sammy Fabelman can be seen within all of us, we all have a dream, we all see stuff that inspires us, and we take that stuff that inspires us and makes something happen, so that’s the first thing from the story that absolutely work with me. This is something anyone can relate to, and this is really an easy sell for anyone to go watch this movie. The main problem with this premise is the execution of the story, because if you really didn’t grow up watching movies from the 80s and 90s and more importantly didn’t grow up knowing what Stevens Spielberg has done in his career Then you’re not going to enjoy the way he basically recreates his childhood and finding that inspiration that defines his career. And with a two-hour and 30 minutes runtime, it is acceptable if you find what you’re watching boring.

Now what truly really blew my mind was the performance from the whole cast Seth Rogen,Paul Dano, Gabriel LaBelle, and Michelle Williams. The cast was great everybody did amazing in their performances Michelle Williams and Paul Dano were great mom and dad Fabelman, Both with great award-worthy performances and if I have to choose between one of them I think this Michelle Williams has absolutely grown as an actress and has become a force to be reckoned with. Gabriel LaBelle embodies the character of Sammy Fabelman, I believe it had to be absolutely fun for him to understand the role that he’s playing given the person that is directing him to play that role. And if you really need a reason to watch this movie regardless of whom we are talking about within the story is because of their performances.

This is a Stevens Spielberg movie, and as with all his movies we also see this movie shine in all technical aspects from the photography is amazing, the production design is amazing. yet I feel the ultimate demise of this movie is that Spielberg wrote and directed a movie for an audience of one meaning for himself and his fans and lovers are followers of the cinema, which works great for award season but ultimately it doesn’t put butts on seats and sell tickets.

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