"The Devilmen": Spielberg is a great director, but this film is not his masterpiece Israel today

"The Fivelmen" is the most personal film that 75-year-old Steven Spielberg has ever made.

It's also his most interesting film in a long time.

It is a nostalgic, semi-autobiographical and somewhat schmaltz drama about a young Jewish boy who takes his first steps as a filmmaker, against the background of his parents' crumbling relationship.

The place is the United States, the time is the fifties and sixties of the last century, and the young Jewish boy is Spielberg (although here his name is Sammy and not Steven).

Spielberg wrote the script himself (together with the celebrated playwright Tony Kushner, with whom he has collaborated a lot in the last two decades), and it is fascinating to see how he seeks to present himself and the childhood experiences that turned him (with record speed, it must be said) into the most successful film director in history (he was a 27 when he directed "Jaws").

As a tender child and as an adolescent, we see how the cinema uses the young Sami as a manipulative and powerful tool to control his environment, and in some beautiful moments in the second half of the film we can also see how he separates himself from his environment and becomes an outside observer - a kind of camera that captures the sometimes turbulent family drama who plays herself before his eyes.

The family drama is less successful.

"The Fablemen", photo: Public Relations

Meanwhile, the family drama itself actually turns out to be the least successful (and least complex) part of the film, and this is due to the not always refined script, which often errs in theatrics and insists on spoon-feeding the viewers.

Paul Dano ("It Will End in Blood") does an effective job as the father, a brilliant and rational computer whiz who thinks his son's film ventures are nothing more than a nice hobby.

Michelle Williams ("Manchester by the Sea"), who plays the mother, on the other hand, gives an artificial and mannerist performance as an artist with a sensitive and turbulent soul who has trouble turning off her passions and being a disciplined housewife.

The constant tension in the family home stems from the fact that each of them "represents" a different side of their personality (he is the head, she is the heart), and as expected, Sami (played by Matteo Zorion as a child and by Gabriel LeBelle as a teenager) is torn between the two.

Voyeur tool.

"The Fablemen", photo: Public Relations

Things get fairly complicated when Sammy discovers that one of his home movies, taken during a family camping vacation, contains a dark secret that will shatter his innocence and change his life forever.

In these parts of the film - which, amusingly, are somewhat reminiscent of a family version of Oliver Stone's "JFK" - the movie camera becomes a voyeuristic tool with the power to reveal the painful truth, and the child Spielberg seems to momentarily become the main character in Michelangelo Antonioni's "Instincts" (or " "Explosion" by Brian De Palma).

If you grew up on Steven Spielberg's films, "The Devilmen" will provide you with great interest.

It's fun to recognize the many references to his films scattered throughout the piece ("Encounters of the Third Kind", "Saving Private Ryan", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "IT" and more, they all make short guest appearances here, in one way or another);

It is a pleasure to be exposed to the sources of inspiration behind the many iconic images he created during his career;

And also the origin story itself of Sammy/Steven as a filmmaker, which corresponds with a number of deaths that have always been dominant in Spielberg's films (and which seeks to explain why he preferred to stay away from other subjects), provides plenty of material for thought and analysis.

Does not take off to play.

"The Fablemen", photo: Public Relations

However, apart from two great scenes - one with the elderly actor Judd Hirsch, who delivers an amusing and passionate monologue that connects artists and drug addicts, and the other that takes place at the very end of the film, when Sammy meets his great hero, the director John Ford - " The Fiebelmen" doesn't really take off, and at least, it didn't manage to move me either.

This is an interesting film because a biopic about Spielberg, directed by Spielberg, cannot but be interesting, by definition.

But in the end, no matter how you look at it, it's also a fairly minor work engineered to establish a narrative, to perpetuate a myth, and to win Oscars (of course).

"The Fiebelmen" |

A translated trailer for Steven Spielberg's new film.

Credit: United King

In my opinion, it does not reach the level of other nostalgic and semi-autobiographical films produced in recent years (like "Licorice Pizza" by Paul Thomas Anderson, for example, or "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" by Quentin Tarantino), and it is also light years away from "A Good Jew" by The Cohen brothers (who tell stories very similar to those told here, only that he does it in a much more effective, intelligent and shocking way).

There is no doubt that Steven Spielberg is a great director.

But "The Fibblemen" is not his masterpiece.

"The Fivelmen", USA 2022

Score: 7

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