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Quick Thoughts on “The Fabelmans”

I finally got around to watching the Oscar-nominated film

Josh Spilker
2 min readFeb 18, 2023
  1. If this wasn’t Steven Spielberg it wouldn’t be as interesting
  2. But because it is — or loosely based — it makes it way more compelling
  3. We know what this young person will go on to do. If all these things had happened to a normal director, there would be no urgency and no interest

4. Anyone who has ever had one iota of artistic interest will recognize the tension in the family. Will he keep making movies? Will he give up? What about his engineer dad? That hits home for me because my dad was an electrical engineer. One time in a bookstore, my dad told me not to buy an art history book because it was pointless. “Build something real” his dad says, only to invest his time in computer technology that will quickly be obsolete. Movies also become obsolete. We’re all just building on top of someone else’s vision and work

5. From the creative work, it takes a lot of reps to get good. The movie does a good job of showing how the main Spielberg stand-in (Sam Fabelman) devoted their childhood to making things, even small movies.

6. Michelle Williams is really good in this as the mother

7. Family dramas still have a place in the world. I will say I watched this on my TV at home. One local theater 30 minutes away was still showing it, but it seemed like too much of a commitment to be honest. Though the opening scenes would have probably looked a lot better on a big screen. I’ll own up that I am part of the problem(?) but I prefer movies like this at home

8. I didn’t quite get the jock’s reaction to the movies Sam Fabelman was making. However, it made it apparent how what’s depicted on screen can never live up to real life. Everything is edited, especially what we portray to others.

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Josh Spilker
Josh Spilker

Written by Josh Spilker

Startup writer & marketer. Here's your free quick note-taking cheat sheet: https://joshspilker.gumroad.com/l/itqjq

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