Film Review: The Fabelmans could have descended into self-hagiography, but Spielberg nowhere gilds the lily

The Fabelman family, and most notably the ambitious Sammy himself, are fascinating but flawed, a fractious and quarrelsome brood whose conflicts result in a very satisfying drama

(From left) Burt Fabelman (Paul Dano), younger Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryan Francis-DeFord) and Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams) in The Fabelmans, co-written and directed by Steven Spielberg. 

★★★★☆

“The cinema is truth 24 times per second,” according to Jean-Luc Godard. And while The Fabelmans (12A) may not be the unvarnished truth of Steven Spielberg’s formative years, it’s certainly a cinematic portrait of the artist as a young man.