The Fabelmans

Steven Spielberg has made a career out of big blockbuster adventure movies, so The Fabelmans, a personal family drama, is quite the gear change.

The semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story follows Sammy Fabelman (mostly Gabriel LaBelle) as he discovers his love for movies growing up in New Jersey with his parents – electrical engineer Burt (Paul Dano) and pianist-turned-housewife Mitzi (Michelle Williams) – and three sisters.

We follow teenage Sammy as he makes increasingly ambitious short films with his family and friends and finds solace in movie-making amid troubles at home, as he finds out a shocking secret about his mother.

The Fabelmans is a very different kind of Spielberg film. He has dispensed with the aliens, sharks, and dinosaurs and brought us a domestic story that hits extremely close to home.

You would not expect a seasoned blockbuster director to create something so deeply personal, introspective, and honest.

It...