A late Spielberg review

I finally got around to watching Steven Spielberg's last film - the critically well received semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans. 

I thought it was really good, and deserved a wider audience.   Clearly, it was intended a respectful take on the influence he came under from two very different parents, each with their own flaws.   (Both of them had died before this movie was made.)  

I had known enough about him to know before seeing it that most of the key parts of the film were true to life - he grew up mostly in Arizona, and was a precociously gifted child/teenage film maker, encouraged by both parents, but with the more artistic urges (by far!) coming from his eccentric mother, who is really the key character in the film.  I thought Michelle Williams was really outstanding in the role - playing it as pixie-ish but vulnerable and very flawed.   

I presume, though, that the film makes a case for Spielberg getting technical prowess, and perhaps stamina, in moviemaking from his intelligent father, who apparently was a bit of a workaholic.   

The danger with such a film is that the Spielberg character could have been portrayed in too self serving a fashion - but I think it manages to avoid that.   Sure, he's likeable throughout the film, but it didn't feel fake or "too good to be true" in any respect.   

This article is a good one for showing how true to life most of the film is - including the obvious care Spielberg took to make the actors look like the real-life counterparts.    

There was one funny part of the film (his first teenage girlfriend, with a sub-sexual infatuation with the image of Jesus) that I thought seemed so eccentric that it must be true.  But unfortunately, this is one aspect that has not been confirmed as such.   

Anyway, as a family drama that is not too heavy going, well acted, well made and overall very likeable, I do recommend it.