Young Sammy Fabelman is taken to the cinema by his parents to see 'The Greatest show on Earth,' the film has a major impact on him, and inspires him to take up film making, a deep family secret threatens to end his dream.
I wanted to love this movie, I really did, but I just found it too slow and long, overall it's not bad, a nice movie. As always I'll start with the positives, how nice to see a film that isn't action packed, with tonnes of CGI, villains and explosions, this is an engaging story, a sunday afternoon movie to curl up on the sofa to.
The acting is excellent, Dano and Williams are excellent, sincere performances, Seth Rogen is pretty good too, he's surprising me as he's maturing.
The downside, it's way too long, I fell asleep twice, and had to rewind back, it needed to be shorter, as there's nothing punchy happening, it's hard to remain focused, there's measured, and then there's slow, this was definitely more towards the latter.
Not sure I'd watch it again, but glad I did.
6/10.
Plot summary
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
February 10, 2023 at 07:54 PM
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It's a very long movie.
This falls far short of the hype,
It was far too stretched out. Like in breaking point elastic.
An irritating factor at the beginning (and this is one of my pet peeves) is that the blue eyed boy becomes a brown-eyed teenager/adult. This might be nit-picking to some but it jerks me right out of the film.
The scenes with the train were way overplayed, We get it Steven. Truly.
The film is more about the mother than her son. And their dynamic didn't feel real either. She had three other children and there is virtually nothing of her interactions with them.
I am a huge admirer of SS and his films but this is, I hate to say this, cringe worthy. That scene where the bully follows him to the locker room is unbelievable. No thick bully would have that kind of insight into his own behaviour.
I get the fifties vibe, the Beach Blanket Bingo of that era,
But it was all over the place and the focus was not consistent.
Self indulgent pap.
5/10. I am being generous.
A nice homage but too long and not one of Spielberg's best.
This semi-autobiographical film centres around Sammy Fabelman who is transfixed by the first movie he sees at age 6 and develops a passion for film making. Other themes explored with variable depth and success include the fracturing marriage of his parents, bullying and anti-semitism at high school, young love and coming of age, and selfishness in general.
The movie is way too long and felt a little boring in the first 45minutes. It's nicely shot and well directed as you would expect, but the script is patchy and while the acting is generally excellent, the performances of Paul Dano and in particular Michelle Williams as Sammy's parents felt too affected and a little contrived - at times I felt I was watching filming on the set of a TV sitcom. I wonder still if this was deliberately instructed by Spielberg, but for me it doesn't work.
Gabriel Labelle is the best as the teenage Sammy and Judd Hirsch is superb in a cameo as Uncle Boris. John Williams as always provides a perfect score and the visuals are superb.
Overall it's worth seeing for a little insight into Spielberg's childhood but there is an unsatisfactory feel to the film as a whole. I think it could have been so much better.