Auto-biographical elements in Steven Spielberg movies are nothing new, but The Fabelmans takes things to another level. In a lot of ways, it feels like Spielberg directly reminiscing on his childhood, and putting it up on the big screen. There's a certain simplicity to it as a result, but it does thankfully make for an engaging movie. Performances are quite strong across the board, the celebration of filmmaking shines through in a number of key scenes, and it's undoubtedly well-made. It has the level of proficiency and visual polish you'd expect from a film made by a director this great, and in its best moments, it's a joy to watch a master of his craft at work.

It didn't always work for me, though. I think there are some lines of dialogue here and there that didn't ring true, and a few things about the characters that weren't clear. 150 minutes also feels long for this kind of story, but at the same time, it only felt slightly too long. I think if it had just been 10-15 minutes (or felt 10-15 minutes shorter), I wouldn't have even thought about the runtime while watching it.

Still, it's a movie I'd recommend seeing at the movies. It would lose something if you watched it at home, I think, and even if I wouldn't include it among Spielberg's best films, it's a solid late-career film that feels very Spielbergian, and for much of the film's runtime, that's enough.

Even as I write this review, I should note I typed "Spielbergian" and it didn't put a red squiggly line under it to suggest it's not a real word. You know you've made it as an artist if something can be described as "surnameian" (that gets a red squiggle by the way) and the dictionary says, "Yeah, that's a real word. I'll allow it."