CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 15: Steven Spielberg appears on stage during the Opening Ceremony of the 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 15, 2013 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
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There was a time when I thought Steven Spielberg was ramping up to retire. Okay, so the first time I thought that was in hindsight upon a rewatch of Hook (turning 30 in a week) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which dealt with Spielberg metaphorically coming to terms with his parents’ strengths and flaws and then trying to figure out how to be a world-traveling filmmaker and a proactive parent. Hook seemed to end on a note implying that the filmmaker couldn’t do both.
In retrospect, I still wonder if the filmmaker would have retired or become far less active by the mid-1990’s had Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List become zeitgeist-defining smashes in 1993, with the former reinventing the summer blockbuster and becoming the biggest-grossing movie of all time globally ($924 million sans reissues) and the former earning the critical acclaim and awards-specific glory denied to him over the first 20 years of his career. Obviously, Spielberg no more retired in the mid-1990’s than did Stephen King retire in 1999.
But a few years ago, with the filmmaker pushing 70 (he turns 75 on December 18), with word that the filmmaker would be ramping up a fifth Indiana Jones movie and then finally getting to make his long-sought-after musical, well, it felt like the final chapter of an incredible Hollywood career. James Mangold is now helming Indiana Jones 5 for June 30, 2023, but Spielberg is directing The Fabelmans, a loosely autobiographical family dramedy/coming-of-age story.
Universal is slating the Amblin release, which I can only hope opens on a present-tense film set during which someone remarks that “Stevie’s gonna have to think about his whole life before he directs Ready Player One,” will open Wednesday, November 23, 2022. So, yeah, it’s next year’s unofficial “big Thanksgiving movie that isn’t a Disney toon” offering.
Gabriel LaBelle plays young Sammy, who is the film’s (theoretical) stand-in for Mr. Spielberg. Michelle Williams will star as Sammy’s mother while Paul Dano plays his father and Seth Rogen plays his uncle. The last time Rogen and Williams worked together, it was for Sarah Polley’s dynamite marital dramedy Take This Waltz, which alongside 50/50 the same year should have been the end of the whole “Can Seth Rogen do drama?” conversation.
Beyond that I cannot say, but any family dramedy written by both Spielberg and Tony Kushner (West Side Story, Lincoln and Munich) has my immediate attention. Most of Spielberg’s output has been historical dramas and closer to “Hollywood doesn’t make this anymore” output than IP tentpoles like Ready Player One. The Fabelmans fits the former category, and it’s the kind of movie which probably wouldn’t exist at this level sans the Spielberg connection.
Will West Side Story and The Fabelmans mark Spielberg’s final two films, as I presumed might be the case when his next two were West Side Story and Indiana Jones 5? By the Ridley Scott/Paul Verhoeven standard he’s still got a decade left to show those young whipper-snappers how it’s done. Spielberg’s career is littered with films (Catch Me If You Can, War Horse, War of the Worlds, West Side Story, Empire of the Sun, etc.) that for him are “middle of the road” but would be among the career-best for maybe 95% of any living filmmakers.
I don’t have a clue what to expect from this period piece family melodrama. But the Spielberg/Kushner combo remains 3 for 3 (I’m inclined to argue that Munich is Spielberg’s best film), so it’s automatically an event no matter what superhero movie or franchise-specific tentpole is opening alongside.
