A Birds Eye Review: The Fabelmans and Complicated Family Dynamics and Motherhood

Geana Robinson
Jun 18, 2023
3 min read

Updated: Jul 16, 2023

RATING: 4/5 STARS

Movies to watch if you enjoyed this: Honeyboy (2019), Manchester By The Sea (2016), Boyhood (2014)

Hello again, and welcome to the third installment of 'A Birds Eye Review' by me, Geana. I hope that this series will take us on a journey together to weird and wonderfully forgotten and underrated crevasses of modern cinema, and that you also might come to enjoy, and maybe even love the beauty of film as much as I do. Enjoy!

First Impressions

Spielberg's semi-autobiographical masterpiece, The Fabelmans (2022) has been celebrated among film enthusiasts and Spielberg fans since it's release earlier this year. The story follows Sammy Fableman, a budding filmmaker with a chaotic family dynamic that makes for both an interesting and unique upbringing, as well as one of turmoil, hardships and brokenness. His eccentric and passionate mother, and practical but doting father, are what drives this narrative in all-encompassing directions, and dare I say this is one of Michelle Williams' best performances.

The downfall of a mother through the eyes of her child

This film does a brilliant job of portraying the common human experience of realizing your parent's aren't who you thought they were, which is a kind of trauma on it's own, in such a clever way. Mrs Fabelman is a crumbling character - easily triggered, emotional, capricious, and seemingly irresponsible. Many times we are shown her best times through the eyes of the camera lens which, in many ways, is how Sammy sees the world. And when the camera lens reveals a secret only known to Sammy, his relationship with his mother, and consequently with filmmaking, compromises his morals and values as a teenage.

Mother-son relationships have historically never been easy. We often see turbulent relationships between mother's and sons in films like in Boyhood (2014), I Killed My Mother (2009), The Power of the Dog (2021) and many more that portray this concept of clashing personalities., and disappointments. Even Jojo Rabbit (2019) revolves around this central theme of adolescent rebellion, particularly against the decisions and morals of a mother who's demise ultimately stems from her decision to serve the greater good, whilst having to sacrifice her relationship with her young, brainwashed son. In The Fabelmans, we see a strained relationship based off the illusion Mrs Fabelman has that she and Sammy are somehow the same because they share a love of the arts, unlike Mr Fabelman and the other kids. However, the allusion that being the only two artists (musician and filmmaker) is a bond that makes them the same, ends up being the cause of her downfall, and ultimately results in losing her son after their divorce.

The scientists vs the artists

"In our family it's the scientists versus the artists, Sammy's on my team, takes after me, except he's got real talent"

This line not only represents a central theme of the film, but encompasses the age-old debate, which here is represented through the patriarchal and housewife dynamic. Father versus mother; wife versus husband. From the start, she pegs herself against him, foreshadowing their failure to stay together as a couple by the end of the film.

I have already spoken briefly about how this mentality impacts her relationship with Sammy, but I think it is interesting to consider how this sentence is the cause of the main conflict of the film. And so it is no surprise that when Sammy gives up his filmmaking passion to pursue a "real career" like his father, his life begins to concave into itself - an import lesson for anyone denying their artistic inclinations.; the more you deny it, the more we deny ourselves.