In the final third of The Fabelmans, high school bully Logan tells Sammy Fabelman that “Life’s nothing like the movies.” Spielberg’s fictional account of his childhood is less about movie magic than it is about the control capturing life on celluloid grants us.
The film’s defining emotional beats come not from the western shoot-outs or train heists Sammy Fabelman creates but the moments in his real life he records. His love of filmmaking not only grants him a way of…
