\nI can appreciate why so many critics have supported the movie. A central stream of the narrative is why we love movies and how to make one and critics love films about filmmaking. \n
\nFor myself, however, while I found this was an accomplished and entertaining work with both pathos and humour, it is nothing special as a film and, in my view, far from Spielberg’s best or most memorable (think – to take two very different cases – of “ET” or “Schindler’s List”).\n
\nNewcomer Gabriel LaBelle does fine as the 16 year old Sammy Fabelman (a thinly disguised version Spielberg), while the adult characters in his life are all well-played: Michelle Williams as his eccentric pianist mother, Paul Dano as his dependable scientist father, Judd Hirsch as a bombastic uncle, and Seth Rogan as the family’s best friend. And there’s a nice touch with director David Lynch playing veteran moviemaker John Ford in a short closing segment. \n
\nThe movie successfully interweaves two lessons: how the adults in our life are not perfect and how film can ‘see’ life in new ways. But, for me, this two and a half hour work is less than the sum of its parts.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I can understand why Steven Spielberg – who directed, co-wrote and co-produced this work – regards it with such affection. It is his most personal film to date and largely auto-biographical. I can appreciate why so many critics have supported the movie. A central stream of the narrative is why we love movies and how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28480,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28478\/revisions\/28480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}