When you consider this movie as a film about film making, one scene is more revealing than all the others. It's a scene which captures the essence of cinema in a simple conversation between the film maker (Sammy Fabelman) and his subject (a guy Sammy hates). 'Why did you film me this way?', the guy asks, implying he is not happy with the film. 'What way?', Sammy answers. 'I filmed what I saw'.

It proves that Sammy Fabelman has put an extra layer of meaning over the simple images. He filmed what he saw, but there's more to it than that. Of course, this shows how talented he is. Film making is exactly that: adding a meaning to images.

'The Fabelmans' is not a profound cinematographic document about the secret of succesful films. It's a personal movie about a family falling apart. Film, and what is captured on film, is an element of that process. But, knowing that Sammy Fabelman is Steven Spielberg, you can't help thinking about what Spielberg wants us to know about his style of film making. He shows how he learns to control every aspect of it, from coaching actors to using technical tricks, from finding good shot angles to smart editing. We see it all happening in 'The Fabelmans', right until the very last shot.

Apart from letting us learn a lot about Spielberg as a film maker, 'The Fabelmans' is also a nice coming-of-age movie. Of course, it helps that Spielberg's youth is a good story in itself, with enough drama, fun and emotion in it for 2,5 hours of entertainment. I can imagine that for a director, making a good film about your own family requires a completely different approach than making a good film about a giant shark or a friendly alien creature. But Spielberg has shown many times before how versatile he can be, and how he succeeds in different genres. This autobiograpical movie is once more a case in point.