Magical Egotism is the current vogue in American non-franchise moviedom. Leading practitioners are David O. Russell, Richard Linklater, Noah Baumbach....and now the old hit-maker Steven Spielberg proves himself a master of the genre. This blancmange of a film is redeemed in part by Michelle Williams' remarkable performance and an all-too-brief one by Judd Hirsch. Otherwise, it's tooth-rot.
Spielberg's great talent is for genre movies, so he should be on firm ground here. But the sad fact is that any time he touches anything even remotely serious, there is a whiff of fakery that, in some of his work, becomes a stench.
It's some irony that in this movie, his alter-ego Sam Fableman assesses his early attempt at an 8mm adventure as 'Fake!'. That is THE FABLEMANS.
Spielberg's great talent is for genre movies, so he should be on firm ground here. But the sad fact is that any time he touches anything even remotely serious, there is a whiff of fakery that, in some of his work, becomes a stench.
It's some irony that in this movie, his alter-ego Sam Fableman assesses his early attempt at an 8mm adventure as 'Fake!'. That is THE FABLEMANS.