The Fabelmans
By Kit Macdonald
In this fantastic coming-of-age film, which would surely have won the 2023 Best Picture Oscar had it not been up against Everything Everywhere All At Once, Steven Spielberg is reborn as Sammy Fabelman, a kid in 1950s New Jersey who is inspired to follow a life in filmmaking when he sees Cecil B DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. He is especially taken by the film's train crash scene, and obsessively re-stages it at home using a train set and an 8mm camera, an event that really took place during Spielberg's childhood.
Gabriel LaBelle is marvellous as the young Spielberg - he changed the way he stood, walked and smiled to mimic the real young Spielberg - and Michelle Williams and Paul Dano turn in fine performances as his parents. And if you haven't seen the film before, try to avoid spoilers regarding its final, delightful cameo appearance.