The Fabelmans

Dabbling with a project that’s less prestigious and more personal, The Fabelmans shows that Steven Spielberg can make better home movies than the rest of us, too.

Despite its sentimental and self-indulgent tendencies, the Oscar-winning director knows how to push the right crowd-pleasing buttons in this portrait of an aspiring filmmaker’s formative years during the early 1960s.

Except for changing the character names, the film doesn’t attempt to hide its autobiographical roots — our young hero even looks like a ringer for a teenage Spielberg.

Overcoming its more conventional and episodic narrative structure, it’s whipped into a slick and stylish coming-of-age tale that prefers glossy-eyed nostalgia over meaningful conflict or broader historical context.

It focuses mostly on teenage Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), who grows up in an eccentric Jewish family that includes his tech guru father (Paul Dano), his free-spirited pianist mother (Michelle Williams), and his dad’s best friend (Seth Rogen), who functions as a surrogate uncle for Sammy and his younger siblings.

They relocate from New Jersey to Arizona and later California, where Sammy develops an intense interest in making short films with his nerdy friends, even as he later becomes a target for school bullies. But escaping into a fantasy world shaped by the works of John Ford and Cecil B. DeMille obscures some of the real-life turmoil threatening to tear his family apart.

The performances are endearing, led by the expressive LaBelle (The Predator). Judd Hirsch and David Lynch each steal scenes in extended cameos. Of course, stellar contributions from ace cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and legendary composer John Williams help set the mood.

The meandering screenplay by Spielberg and frequent collaborator Tony Kushner (Lincoln) idealistically conveys the power of the movies to mold our memories and trigger childhood imaginations, as cheesy as that might sound.

Indeed, the lighthearted film seems a product of a bygone era, depicting crowded Cinerama theaters as a wholesome destination for families and a source of artistic inspiration that seems detached from our gritty contemporary reality.

Maybe The Fabelmans is not exactly relatable. Still, there’s an underlying poignancy in the more intimate moments to render this a story worth telling. It’s slight but charming, even when you already know how things turn out in the end for Spielberg — or Sammy, if you prefer.

Rated PG-13, 151 minutes.