does anybody besides us remember going to the movies with your family on holidays? it’s been a tradition of ours for some time. in fact, we saw another spielberg film, west side story, in a theater last year (although certainly not in 2020). this year, after the most delicious thanksgiving repast i can remember (more on that in a minute), we headed out to the 8pm showing at tower theater in sacramento of the fabelmans. steven spielberg’s autobiographical movie about his childhood opened this weekend in anticipation of just this kind of family outing. remembering that such movies can sell out on holidays we had even taken the (in retrospect ludicrous) precaution to physically go to the theater (a scant mile from our home) to procure advance tickets for the showing.
even if you don’t remember holiday showings, surely you remember theaters? they are outside your home. they usually but not always have less comfortable seats than your home. unlike your tv, your computer, your airline seat and literally everywhere, they have only a handful of movies to choose from which are showing on screens that are (usually) bigger than what you have at home–with snacks that are (not necessarily) better and are certainly more expensive.
on this particular thanksgiving night, the four of us literally doubled the number of people in the audience (in case you’re staying home to avoid crowds/covid, maybe keep this in mind. our masks came off quickly). tower is not one of those recliner chair theaters. it is an old-fashioned art house. we were pleased to find that the tower has however replaced its horrifically uncomfortable seats of yore with seats that would have been deemed comfortable before the recliner era. and we were also relieved that in the depths of a fierce sacramento winter (temperatures have sunk into the low fifties at night), we didn’t need to don our ski caps until the last quarter of the 2.5 hour flick.
we all enjoyed the movie itself quite a bit which is saying something as we often don’t all agree on such matters. the movie starts when the steven spielberg boy, sammy fabelman, is about six or seven years old in the late fifties and continues until he is about twenty in the late sixties. most of our film is sammy is as a teen played ably and passionately by previously unknown gabriel labelle. somehow i almost didn’t recognize michelle williams turning in an oscar worthy performance as sammy’s mother–her breathy fluttery emotional range reminded me of judy garland. paul dano is also excellent as sammy’s father and seth rogan as his uncle somehow manages to not be seth rogan.
as a director’s pic about his childhood, the film is by turns action adventure, western, monster movie and beach party as the young sammy makes and projects sequence after sequence starting at the age of six (are there really kids who know their life’s work before they’re 10?). sometimes the genre is not a film he’s making but just his life–like the tense thriller vibe when the family moves to san jose while sammy is in highschool–complete with haunted house, spooky sky, creepy monkey and of course the most terrifying monsters of all: other teens.
judging by the crowd and the times, the fabelmans will likely not be one of spielberg’s blockbusters, but he’s spielberg and he’s entitled to make whatever he wants. by the way, i’m not telling you the big reveal that gives the fabelmans its dramatic thrust. it won’t spoil it, i suppose, to reveal that it’s been said that spielberg is telling the story partly to rehabilitate the image of his father, torn down in previous stories. i looked it up and spielberg’s father died at like 103 in 2020. one wonders why he waited until he was gone to rehabilitate him.
back to the thanksgiving feast: moistest turkey ever, cooked to perfection; mashed potatoes finished off by broiling with cheese on top; best ever sprouted wheat apple and onion dressing; brussel sprouts and grilled butternut squash with just the right salt tang ratio; served with able cranberry sauce, slightly too sweet onion relish and well-doctored store prepared gravy.
Lovely – just lovely!! So nice to have this little connection with you.