Review: ‘Snack Shack,’ starring Conor Sherry, Gabriel LaBelle, Mika Abdalla, Nick Robinson and David Costabile

March 7, 2024

by Carla Hay

Gabriel LaBelle and Conor Sherry in “Snack Shack” (Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures and Paramount Global Content Distribution)

“Snack Shack”

Directed by Adam Rehmeier

Culture Representation: Taking place in Nebraska City, Nebraska (and briefly in Iowa), the comedy/drama film “Snack Shack” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latin people and African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two 14-year-old boys, who are best friends and who want to be “get rich quick” entrepreneurs, rent a concession stand at a public swimming pool for a summer, and they compete for the affections of a visiting teenage girl. 

Culture Audience: “Snack Shack” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching teen movies set in the early 1990s and don’t mind if the movie can’t figure out what it wants to be in its very inconsistent storytelling.

Mika Abdalla in “Snack Shack” (Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures and Paramount Global Content Distribution)

Erratic and unfocused, “Snack Shack” is a silly comedy for the first two-thirds of the movie and then tosses in serious drama in the last third of this sloppily edited film. It’s a derivative teen buddy tale that makes all of the female characters annoying. The movie’s abrupt turn into tearjerking territory looks very out of place, because it’s an obvious and unearned attempt for “Snack Shack” to manipulate emotions out of viewers, before the movie shrugs it off and ends in a “business as usual” way.

Written and directed by Adam Rehmeier, “Snack Shack” takes place in 1991, and was filmed in Nebraska City, Nebraska, where the story occurs. Rehmeier says in the movie’s production notes that “Snack Shack” was inspired by memories of his own teen years in the 1990s in Nebraska City. Those memories seem to be very fragmented, based on the choppy narrative of this substandard movie. Scenes are built up with suspense and then abruptly cut away to the next scene. It happens enough times to be noticeable and aggravating.

“Snack Shack” begins by showing the two 14-year-old guys who are best friends and are at the center of the story. AJ Carter (played by Conor Sherry) is gangly, awkward and mild-mannered. Bruce “Moose” Miller (played by Gabriel LaBelle) is bossy, arrogant and short-tempered. Yes, it’s another buddy movie where the two best pals have opposite personalities. “Snack Shack” mostly takes place during the boys’ summer break from school.

Moose and AJ both have dreams of being business partners in a “get rich quick” scheme. The problem is that they haven’t figured out yet what type of business they should have to become wealthy. First, they travel to Iowa to go to an off-track betting parlor to try to make some cash. But someone who knows AJ’s parents sees Moose and AJ at the betting parlor, and reports it to AJ parents. AJ had lied to his parents by saying that he and Moose were on a field trip.

When AJ and Moose go back to AJ’s house, AJ’s parents yell at them about crossing state lines to gamble, and then they tell AJ that he’s grounded. AJ’s mother Jean (played by Gillian Vigman) is overprotective, but she’s depicted as an irritating nag who’s ready to punish without trying to find out the real reason for a child’s discontent. AJ’s equally strict and rigid father (played by David Costabile) is a county district court judge. His first name is never mentioned in the movie; he’s just called Judge by AJ and other people.

AJ has a sister named Chrissy (played by June Scarlett Gentry, also known as June Gentry), who is about 12 or 13. Chrissy is so one-dimensional, her only purpose in the movie is to tattle on AJ to get him in trouble, and then gloat when he does get in trouble. If Moose has any siblings, they’re not seen or mentioned in the movie. The only glimpse into Moose’s family life is a brief scene of Moose’s mother Sherry (played by Kate Robertson Pryor) encountering AJ’s mother Jean in a grocery store while AJ and Moose are with their respective mothers.

AJ and Moose are friendly with a man in his late 20s named Shane (played by Nick Robinson), who gives them rides in his truck and encourages them to rebel. There’s a brief mention of Shane being on leave from the military, which is why he’s never shown in the movie working at any job. Shane is never shown hanging out with adults, only teenagers.

“Snack Shack” doesn’t mention or acknowledge how it’s creepy and weird for a man in his late 20s to be spending so much of his free time and his social life with these 14-year-old boys. That’s because the movie aggressively pushes the narrative that Shane is supposed to be a “cool older guy” whom AJ and Moose look up to and respect.

Shane is also conveniently there when AJ needs advice on dating, even though the movie presents no evidence that Shane knows what it’s like to be in a healthy love relationship. And who in their right mind would want to date a man who hangs out so much with underage teenagers for his social life? But don’t tell that to the people who made “Snack Shack,” because it would ruin the narrative that Shane is supposed to be a quasi-hero of the story.

“Snack Shack” repeatedly shows and tells that Moose and AJ are supposed to be “rebellious” because they smoke marijuana and nicotine cigarettes. Shane is the one who gives AJ and Moose their first marijuana experiences. Shane also gives alcohol to AJ and Moose and invites them to underground parties.

Somehow, Shane has fooled AJ’s parents into thinking that Shane is a responsible role model, but it still doesn’t explain how the parents don’t see it as odd that Shane doesn’t seem to have any friends his own age and is hanging out so much with these children. Later in the movie, Shane invites AJ to go with Shane on a road trip to Alaska for the following summer, in July and August 1992. Shane tells AJ that the trip will cost AJ about $2,000.

AJ and Moose try starting their own homemade beer company called Real Beer, but that idea (just like the storyline for it) goes nowhere. The plans to start their own beer company end up being demolished when a neighbor angrily tells AJ’s father that the two teens have been illegally tapping into his pipe water supply to make the beer. Before the beer company idea went kaput, AJ and Moose gave Shane a sample taste of their homemade beer, which Shane described as “drinkable as fuck.”

There are a few very contrived and not-very-funny scenes of AJ mowing the front lawn of his family house as part of his chore punishment, but he keeps sneezing, because apparently AJ is allergic to the smell of freshly mowed grass. It’s during one of these sneezing bouts that AJ first sees the teenage girl who will be his love interest for the entire movie. Her name is Brooke (played by Mika Abdalla), who is supposed to be 16 or 17, but she looks like she’s in her 20s.

LaBelle as Moose also looks too old for his “Snack Shack” character’s age. He is never convincing as a 14-year-old in this movie. Sherry (who resembles a teenage Justin Bieber) was also in his 20s when he filmed “Snack Shack,” but he’s believable as a 14-year-old because of his baby face and the way he portrays AJ as an insecure and vulnerable teenager.

Brooke is visiting Nebraska City, and is temporarily staying with her cousin: a teenage girl named Leah (played by April Clark), whose family lives next door to AJ and his family. (Cue the predictable scenes of AJ being a voyeur when he’s ogling Brooke as he looks at her from his bedroom window.) Leah is supposed to be about 14 or 15 years old. Leah’s barely-there personality is only on display in a scene where she whines about being afraid to jump off a diving board into a swimming pool.

Brooke’s father is in the military, so Brooke moves around a lot. Brooke mentions at one point that it’s hard for her to maintain relationships because of all these relocations. It’s supposed to make viewers feel sympathy for Brooke, but it doesn’t excuse her frequently obnoxious personality.

Brooke happens to be outside when she sees AJ having one of his sneezing fits while he’s mowing the lawn. She immediately taunts AJ and calls him “shit pig,” which is what she calls him during the entire movie. Brooke thinks she’s being cute and clever with this derogatory name, but she’s just being disrespectful and stupid. She does a lot of things in this movie that are thoughtless and cruel, but “Snack Shack” wants viewers to ignore all that because Brooke is supposed to be the movie’s “dream girl” just because she looks physically attractive.

AJ is instantly smitten with Brooke, and she knows it. Brooke’s nasty attitude with AJ sets the tone for most of their relationship. She does what can be described as “insult flirting,” where she tries to get a rise out of a guy she likes by pretending that she doesn’t really like him and insulting him to his face. Brooke doesn’t even tell AJ what her name is until after they’ve talked to each other a few times. Brooke takes photos as a hobby and likes to snap pictures of people when they’re caught off-guard.

Moose and AJ gripe to Shane about their woes in finding a way to make money for the summer. That’s when Shane tells AJ and Moose that the local public swimming pool called Steinhart Pool has a concession stand called Snack Shack, which is owned by the city and overseen by the city’s parks and recreation department. (In real life, Steinhart Pool’s name is Steinhart Aquatic Center.) Snack Shack is up for rental to the highest bidder every summer. Whoever wins the bid is responsible for operating Snack Shack for the summer.

In one of the movie’s most illogical plot holes, Shane says Moose and AJ are too young to be lifeguards at the pool (the minimum age to be a lifeguard is 16), so he suggests that Moose and AJ bid for the Snack Shack instead. The movie wants viewers to not know or forget that people under the age of 18 (even in 1991) can’t get a contract for this type of business without a parent or guardian’s permission and co-signature. Needless to say, AJ and Moose don’t want their parents to know about their plans to bid for Snack Shack.

But there would be no “Snack Shack” movie if these realistic details about contracts were in the movie. Moose and AJ scheme to outbid two local brothers named Jeff Bravo (played by Dawson Mullen) and Chris Bravo (played by Christian J. Velez), who are in their 20s and who have been operating Snack Shack for the past few years. Moose and AJ meet up with Jeff and Chris to find out how much they plan to bid, without letting the Bravo brothers know that AJ and Moose want to bid on Snack Shack too.

It leads to a moronic sequence of events where Chris and Jeff tell Moose and AJ that they plan to bid $3,000. Moose and AJ go to a bank to withdraw $3,000 from AJ’s savings account that had money saved for his future college tuition. AJ and Moose arrive at the bank “disguised” in matching business suits and sunglasses to look like adults, but they just really look like pathetic teen Blues Brothers wannabes. And what is the point of these disguises when the bank employees don’t seem to care that Moose and AJ are under 18 and withdrawing this amount of cash?

Moose and AJ go to the city council meeting, where the bidding will take place. Moose and AJ bid $3,001—and find out too late that the Bravo brothers bid only $300. This isn’t spoiler information since all of the movie’s marketing materials show that AJ and Moose end up operating Snack Shack.

AJ’s parents find out that he foolishly blew his savings on this overinflated bid. They get even angrier with AJ over this screw-up than they did about the homemade beer and gambling fiascos, but that doesn’t stop AJ from eventually coming and going as he pleases. What happened to AJ being grounded? Don’t expect any answers to that question. There are so many inconsistencies and plot holes in this mindless movie, it’s ridiculous. That’s why it looks completely unbelievable when AJ’s mother makes vague threats to send AJ to military school.

To make matter worse, dimwits AJ and Moose bid on Snack Shack before even knowing what it looked like on the inside. They find out that they’re stuck with a filthy dump that has no refrigerator and no stove. Moose and AJ end up getting these appliances by buying them as used discounts. The refrigerator they buy is dirty and was previously used by a mortuary. Ick.

In addition to buying appliances, AJ and Moose have to pay for the food and drinks they’re gong to sell. The movie never really explains where they get the extra start-up money. Moose sees himself as the “alpha male” wheeler dealer and AJ as the “beta male” who’s supposed to take orders from Moose. AJ ends up cleaning up Snack Shack by himself during the refurbishing process, while Moose vaguely says he has to be somewhere else to “make deals.” You will see a lot of AJ being treated like a doormat in this movie.

And what a coincidence: Brooke mentions to AJ that she’s looking for a summer job, shortly after AJ finds out that Steinhart Pool has a job opening for a lifeguard. Guess who will be the lifeguard at Steinhart Pool for the summer? It’s all just a contrivance so that Brooke will be close by on the job when the inevitable love triangle happens.

The movie is titled “Snack Shack,” but most of the movie does not take place at Snack Shack. Don’t expect “Snack Shack” to show anything substantial about the customers who are regulars at Snack Shack, because this unimaginative movie isn’t about any interesting relationships that AJ and Moose could have developed by getting to know their customers. Don’t expect anyone in the movie to question why a city would allow two 14-year-old, inexperienced children to operate a city-owned concession stand by themselves. (Can you say, “Insurance disaster waiting to happen”?)

“Snack Shack” doesn’t care about those pesky, realistic details. It’s too preoccupied with regurgitating teen movie stereotypes. At least half of the story is about the rivalry that AJ and Moose have over Brooke. Moose knew from the beginning that AJ had a crush on Brooke, but Moose puts the moves on Brooke anyway. Brooke plays mind games with both of them. Arguments and a lot of pouting ensue. It all becomes so tedious after a while.

And here comes another teen movie cliché: the bullies who are supposed to get their comeuppance. In “Snack Shack,” these lunkheads are muscular brothers Randy Carmichael (played by Michael Bonini) and Rodney Carmichael (played by Christian James), who both have some kind of past feuding with AJ and Moose that’s never really explained in the movie. You just know that every time one or both of the Carmichael brothers show up, it’s only to start a fight with AJ and Moose.

Because AJ is the only one of the two pals whose home life is shown, and because he’s such a passive pushover when it comes to his relationships, viewers are obviously supposed to root for him the most. Of all the “Snack Shack” cast members, Sherry gives the best performance in a sea of mostly mediocre performances. However, “Snack Shack” goes overboard in pushing the sympathy card for AJ before you start to wonder if he has any kind of self-esteem deserving of respect. AJ has trouble finding a spine, just like “Snack Shack” doesn’t have a backbone of a cohesive and well-written story that doesn’t fumble the balance that was needed for the movie’s comedy and drama.

Republic Pictures and Paramount Global Content Distribution will release “Snack Shack” in select U.S. cinemas on March 15, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on April 2, 2024.

Review: ‘The Fabelmans,’ starring Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch

November 11, 2022

by Carla Hay

Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Keeley Karsten, Julia Butters and Sophia Kopera in “The Fabelmans” (Photo by Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures)

“The Fabelmans”

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1952 to 1965, in New Jersey, Arizona, and California, the dramatic film “The Fabelmans” (inspired by director Steven Spielberg’s own youth) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latinos) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Sammy Fabelman’s parents have contrasting opinions about his childhood dream to become a movie director, and his home life becomes turbulent when he finds out an emotionally painful secret. 

Culture Audience: “The Fabelmans” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Spielberg and anyone interested in coming-of-age stories about famous filmmakers.

Gabriel LaBelle in “The Fabelmans” (Photo by Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures)

Steven Spielberg tells a very personal story of his youth in “The Fabelmans,” a drama that’s a partial biopic and a therapeutic life analysis. The movie’s overly long run time drags it down, but Michelle Williams gives a transcendent performance as the mother of the fictional version of Spielberg. “The Fabelmans” (which clocks in at 151 minutes) is yet another story about a young person who ends up going to Hollywood to pursue a dream. But in this case, the young person turned out to be the Oscar-winning Spielberg, who is frequently lauded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Spielberg directed “The Fabelmans” and co-wrote the movie’s screenplay with Tony Kushner. Spielberg and Kushner previously collaborated on the 2021 remake of “West Side Story,” 2012’s “Lincoln” and 2005’s “Munich.” Spielberg has made a wide variety of films, but many of his movies—especially the ones having to do with outer-space creatures, such as 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” 1982’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and 2005’s “War of the Worlds” remake—have a few themes in common, such as people dealing with fractured families and/or families in conflict because one person in the family is determined to pursue a particular goal against tremendous odds. In “The Fabelmans,” there are no outer-space creatures, but protagonist Sammy Fabelman (a fictional character based on the real-life Spielberg) often feels like he’s a proverbial alien in his own family.

“The Fabelmans” begins in New Jersey, on January 10, 1952. Sammy is 5 years old (played by Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), and his parents have taken him to the movies to see director Cecil B. DeMille’s circus drama “The Greatest Show on Earth,” starring Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame and James Stewart. Before they go into the move theater, Sammy’s mother Mitzi Fabelman (played by Williams) and Sammy’s father Burt Fabelman (played by Paul Dano) assure a fearful Sammy that the people who will look like giants on the big screen are just images from the movie. Sammy doesn’t know it yet, but seeing this movie will change his life.

This moviegoing scene in “The Fabelmans” also establishes from the beginning how Mitzi and Burt have two different parenting styles and contrasting outlooks on life. Burt, who is a computer engineer, tries to explain to Sammy the technical aspects of how a movie projector beams images on the screen and how a human brain processes those images. Mitzi, who is an on-again/off-again professional pianist for radio, explains movies to Sammy this way: “They’re like dreams.” In other words, Burt views life like a scientist, while Mitzi views life like an artist.

It’s later mentioned in the movie that young Sammy has anxiety and is prone to panic attacks. But since he’s a child in the 1950s, when people usually didn’t seek psychiatric care for this medical condition, Sammy doesn’t get therapy in his childhood for his anxiety. The person in his family who is most likely to calm him down is his mother Mitzi, who has mental health struggles of her own. She is the person in the family who is most likely to understand Sammy.

Sitting between his parents while watching “The Greatest Show on Earth,” Sammy is in awe and slightly afraid of what he’s seeing on the big screen. He is particularly impacted by the movie’s train-wreck scene. In this scene, a criminal who has just robbed a circus train, which is stopped on the tracks, drives his car onto the tracks to frantically stop another circus train traveling right behind the first train. His plan doesn’t work, and the second train plows into his car and the first train, causing death and some of the wild circus animals to escape.

After Sammy gets home, his parents notice that he’s become obsessed with trains. As a Hanukkah gift, Sammy’s father gives him a train set. The other members of the Fabelman household are Sammy’s younger sisters Reggie Fabelman (played by Birdie Borria) and Natalie Fabelman (played by Alina Brace).

It isn’t long before Sammy is recreating the train wreck that he saw in “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Burt gets angry because he thinks Sammy isn’t respecting the toy train and is trying to ruin it, so he temporarily takes the train set away from Sammy as punishment. He orders Sammy not to simulate a train wreck when he plays with the toy train.

“I need to see them crash,” Sammy tells his parents to explain why he likes making the train crash into a toy car. Mitzi understands why Sammy has a fascination with creating a train wreck and explains it to Burt that it’s because Sammy wants control over the train. Burt doesn’t care to understand and just thinks Sammy is being a spoiled brat.

One night, after Sammy has gotten his toy train back, Mitzi takes him into the room where the train set is. She tells Sammy that he can crash the train one more time, but they will secretly use Burt’s film camera to film everything, so Sammy can watch the train wreck over and over without actually crashing the train. Mitzi tells Sammy that this film will be their little secret.

Of course, this film is the start of Sammy’s lifelong passion to become a filmmaker. By the following year, in 1953, the Fabelmans have a new addition to the family: a baby named Lisa. Burt gets a job working as a manager at General Electric (GE) in Phoenix, Arizona. Mitzi is supportive of the move, as long as Burt can get his best friend/co-worker Bennie Loewy (played by Seth Rogen) a job at GE too. It’s mentioned several times in the movie that Burt is an exceptional engineer and a computer visionary, while Bennie is an average employee who owes much of his career to getting help from Burt.

The Fabelman kids often call Burt’s best friend Uncle Bennie, even though Bennie isn’t biologically related to them. During a Fabelman family dinner, observant viewers will notice other dynamics in Bennie’s relationship to the Fabelmans. Bennie is a friendly jokester who likes to play harmless pranks and make people laugh, especially Mitzi.

Burt’s outspoken, widowed mother Hadassah Fabelman (played by Jeannie Berlin), who is a frequent visitor in the household, isn’t too fond of Bennie. Hadassah notices how Bennie and Mitzi have a playful banter with each other. Mitzi’s widowed mother Tina Schildkraut (played by Robin Bartlett), who is much more laid-back than Hadassah, doesn’t talk much and only has a few scenes in the movie.

Burt is mild-mannered, nerdy and slow to pick up on body language and social cues to figure out how people are really feeling. He’s a classic introvert who is more likely to consider facts when making a decision. Mitzi is impulsive, moody and very attuned to people’s unsaid thoughts. Mitzi is a classic extrovert, who is more likely to consider feelings when making a decision. Burt prefers to avoid confrontations. Mitzi isn’t afraid of confrontations and will often cause them.

It’s also implied that Mitzi has an undiagnosed mental illness, which is presented in “The Fabelmans” as looking a lot like bipolar disorder. In a scene that takes place in 1953, before the family moves from New Jersey to Arizona, a tornado strikes the area where the Fabelmans live. Instead of wanting to stay safe in their house or a secure shelter, like most people would, Mitzi spontaneously decides to take Sammy, Natalie and Reggie with her in the family car to drive toward the tornado so that they can get a closer look at it. (Mitzi at least has the sense to leave baby Lisa behind with Burt.)

Mitzi makes this decision so quickly, Burt doesn’t have time to stop her, and his protests are ignored. The kids are too young to understand that Mitzi could be putting them in danger, because she acts like this is a fun joy ride. As they get closer to the tornado and the rain storm gets worse, Mitzi stops the car, and the reality sinks in that this isn’t an adventure trip after all. She begins to cry but still pretends to the children that everything is just fine as she dejectedly drives home. You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to see that this incident looks like a manic episode from a person with bipolar disorder.

It’s no secret that in real life, Spielberg’s parents got divorced when he was a teenager. Spielberg has also been open about the reason why they got divorced. He talked about it in director Susan Lacy’s 2017 documentary “Spielberg,” as well as in some interviews that he’s given over the years. But the reason why is parents got divorced will be a surprise to many people who watch “The Fabelmans” for the first time, so those details won’t be revealed in this review.

However, it’s enough to say that by the time the family moves to Phoenix, the cracks in the marriage are already starting to show. “The Fabelmans” then fast-forwards to the family’s life in Arizona during the early-to-mid-1960s. Sammy is now a blossoming teenage filmmaker (played by Gabriel LaBelle), who makes short films (mostly Westerns) with his schoolmates and members of his Boy Scout troop. Sammy gets a lot of praise and admiration from most people around him for his filmmaking. Bennie is in Arizona too, working at GE with Burt and often accompanying the Fabelmans on family gatherings.

After some initial skepticism, Sammy’s father Burt eventually becomes impressed with Sammy’s talent for filmmaking, but Burt is not entirely convinced that filmmaking is a good career choice for Sammy. He often tells Sammy to pursue a more “practical” profession. Burt also keeps calling Sammy’s filmmaking a “hobby,” and Sammy is offended by Burt not taking Sammy’s filmmaking seriously as a future career. By contrast, Mitzi is Sammy’s first and biggest filmmaking fan, and she never wavers or has doubts in encouraging Sammy to become a filmmaker.

Reggie (played by Julia Butters), who’s about two or three years younger than Sammy, is intelligent, assertive and opinionated. She’s also the sister who has the closest emotional bond to Sammy, and he values her opinion. (Reggie is based on Spielberg’s real-sister Anne, who became a screenwriter.) For example, while Steven is editing his short films, he sometimes shows Nancy early cuts of the films and asks her what she thinks.

Natalie (played by Keeley Karsten), who’s about four years younger than Sammy, is a polite and obedient kid. She’s based on Steven Spielberg’s middle sister Sue, who’s actually seven years younger than he is. Sammy’s youngest sister Lisa (played by Sophia Kopera), who’s six years younger than Sammy, doesn’t have much of a personality in the movie at all. (Lisa is based on Steven Spielberg’s youngest sister Nancy, who’s actually 10 years younger than he is.)

With the Fabelman kids at an age where they are all now in school, Mitzi begins to take up professional piano playing for radio again. The family members (with Bennie) often gather in their living room to watch Mitzi practice. Burt is reluctant to give any criticism to Mitzi, while Bennie is more forthright and isn’t afraid to tell Mitzi what he thinks.

There’s a telling scene where Mitzi’s long fingernails cause a clacking noise when she plays the piano. Burt denies there’s anything wrong with that, but Bennie says it’s going to be a problem for radio listeners to hear this clacking noise during Mitzi’s piano playing. Mitzi takes pride in her long, well-manicured fingernails and doesn’t want to cut them. She eventually relents when Bennie and some of the kids playfully tackle her, and Bennie cuts her nails.

One of the most memorable sequences in “The Fabelmans” is a fateful camping trip that the family takes while living in Arizona. Everything is going well. Everyone seems to be happy. Sammy is filming everything that he can during this trip.

One night during a campfire, Mitzi spontaneously decides to do a ballet dance in front of Burt, Bennie, Sammy and Reggie while she’s wearing a thin-fabric nightgown. Sammy is filming it, of course. In order to get better lighting, Bennie turns on the headlights of a car parked nearby. The bright lights essentially cause Mitzi’s nightgown to become see-through, and it’s obviously she’s completely naked underneath the gown.

Reggie is mortified, and she runs up to her mother to tell her discreetly that everyone can see through Mitzi’s nightgown. Mitzi ignores her and keeps dancing, while Reggie pleads for her mother to stop. Mitzi keeps dancing, while an annoyed Reggie runs away and says that everyone there is crazy.

Mitzi’s only audience is now Bennie, Burt and Sammy, who keeps the camera focused on Mitzi. All of them are looking at Mitzi, almost as if they’re in a trance. Their fascination with her is for different reasons, which can all be seen on the expressions on their faces. Sammy being in awe isn’t incestuous, although it does come across as a little creepy that he’s staring at his mother’s nearly naked body.

This scene shows that Sammy is so enthralled with his filmmaking and what he’s getting on camera, it’s almost as if he forgot that the woman in the see-through gown in front of him is his own mother. When Mitzi ends the dance, she looks at everyone staring at her with a expression of satisfaction but also a tinge of sadness. Later, when the family looks at the footage, Mitzi praises Sammy by telling him, “You really see me.”

Another pivotal sequence in “The Fabelmans” happens when Mitzi’s uncle Boris (played by Judd Hirsch) shows up at the Fabelmans’ home in Phoenix for a surprise visit. This visit happens after Mitzi had a nightmarish dream that her mother Tina (Boris’ sister) called Mitzi to warn her that something was coming. According to Mitzi, Boris used to bully Tina when Tina was a child, and Mitzi grew up in fear of him too. And so, when Boris arrives at the home, Mitzi greets him with a lot of apprehension, but she eventually relaxes when she sees that Boris is nice to her and her family.

Boris, who is now an elderly man, spent much of his life as a lion trainer in the circus. He has a personality that is eccentric and “in your face.” He’s a raconteur who likes to tell stories about himself, and he has a voice that compels people to pay attention to him. In other words, it’s impossible to ignore Boris when he’s in a room.

When Boris finds out that Sammy is an aspiring filmmaker, he begins to give Sammy advice on what to expect in life if Sammy wants to be an artist. Sammy doesn’t see the connection between being an artist and a circus lion trainer, until Boris explains that there’s no art in putting your head in a lion, but there’s an art in keeping the lion from biting your head while in a lion’s mouth.

Boris warns Sammy that artists will have always have a tug of war between art and family. He also tells Sammy that being an artist also means often being very lonely. Sammy is both awed and intimidated by Boris, especially after Boris puts Sammy in headlock in an awkward way to show Sammy to remember that physical pain every time Sammy has to suffer as an artist.

The last third of “The Fabelmans” could have been its own movie because of all the things that happen. In this part of the film, the Fabelmans move once again—this time to California’s Santa Clara County, because Burt has gotten a major job offer to work for IBM. Mitzi and Sammy (who is in his last year of high school) are very unhappy with this move, and the family starts to crumble over various things. Unlike their life in Arizona, where they lived near several other Jewish families, the Fabelmans are the only Jewish family in their California neighborhood.

At school, Sammy is a misfit loner who gets bullied by the school’s star athletes, led by a conceited pretty boy named Logan Hall (played by Sam Rechner), who is also in his last year of high school. Logan has a weaselly sidekick named Chad Thomas (played by Oakes Fegley), who openly hates Jewish people. Sammy experiences some cruel antisemitism from Chad, Logan and other students who stand by and laugh when Sammy gets bullied for being Jewish.

Sammy also gets caught up in some drama between Logan’s girlfriend Claudia Denning (played by Isabelle Kusman) and Logan. It leads to Sammy getting to closer to Claudia and Claudia’s best friend Monica Sherwood (played by Chloe East), who is a self-described Jesus freak. Monica is fascinated by Sammy being Jewish, so her interest in him is a combination of teenage lust and a desire to turn him on to Christianity.

The last third of “The Fabelmans” is the best part of the movie, but it’s also the messiest. It mostly chronicles Sammy’s last year in high school in California, and it offers a glimpse into his life after high school. (Real-life filmmaker David Lynch has a noteworthy cameo as legendary filmmaker John Ford.) Sammy’s life after high school and during college is so truncated, it’s obvious to viewers that a significant part of the story is missing, to the detriment of the movie, which is already too long. In other words, this story should have been a miniseries, not a feature-length film.

However, there’s no denying that “The Fabelmans” does a stellar job of depicting Sammy coming to terms with the fantasies that he escapes to in filmmaking and the harsh realities of life. The movie also skillfully shows that the two most impactful relationships that Sammy had in his youth are Sammy’s relationship with filmmaking and Sammy’s relationship with his mother. The reasons for the family unraveling are heartbreaking but very realistic.

And it’s why Williams is such a standout in a very talented cast. Her portrayal of Mitzi is far from stereotypical and shows many depths and layers to this complicated person. Mitzi has wonderful qualities as well as damaging flaws. Williams makes this character a full, authentic human being, not just someone reciting lines and emoting on screen.

The other principal cast members do well in their roles. Dano is convincing in playing a character who represses a lot of emotions and denies a lot of problems until it’s too late. LaBelle also turns in an admirable performance, considering it’s not easy for any actor to know that he’s playing a young version of Steven Spielberg. Rogen is perfectly fine as family friend Bennie, but this character doesn’t have a lot of screen time, and Rogen (who’s mostly known as a comedic actor) has had better roles to show his dramatic abilities.

“The Fabelmans” is a specific story but it’s also universal to anyone who can relate to pursuing dreams, even when people doubt that certain goals can be accomplished. The movie’s tone has a middle-class American sheen to it that will get some criticism for glossing over a lot of American society problems in the 1950s and 1960s that still exist today. Antisemitism is part of the story, but racism, sexism, poverty and other social ills are completely erased in this movie.

This omission of any of society’s problems outside of Sammy’s limited world in the 1950s and 1960s speaks to how his young life had its share of turmoil, but it was still in a certain “bubble” where he was blissfully unaware or chose to ignore a lot of society’s problems that weren’t about him. It’s a blind spot that many people carry throughout their lives, but “The Fabelmans” offers no real or meaningful introspection about that blind spot.

“The Fabelmans” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie won the People’s Choice Award, which is the festival’s top prize. Even with any accolades that this movie receives, when people look back on Steven Spielberg’s most beloved films, “The Fabelmans” won’t be at the top of the list for most people. However long-winded this movie can be, it still showcases Spielberg’s talent for telling emotionally genuine stories about families, as well as expressing why people fall in love with filmmaking.

Universal Pictures released “The Fabelmans” in select U.S. cinemas on November 11, 2022, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on November 23, 2022.

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