Overall I understand the criticism I've seen online, but I think when it's obvious a movie was made by someone who had a vision and
wanted to make it (rather than a studio project made for the market), I tend to cut it some slack. That probably sounds a little pretentious but I do.
Plus I like getting lost in character pieces so.. even though it felt like two movies stitched together once they got to California, I actually probably coulda handled a little more, even.
But that's all a me-thing, not necessarily a reflection of the movie itself.
Though actually speaking of me-things, there's something really specific in this movie: a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot where Sam is coping with his parents divorcing by imagining that he's filming it. I've never seen that represented in film before, but it is totally a thing I've done all my life. Not necessarily even traumatic events, just life in general. Imagining how I'd dramatize and film things that've happened to me, good or bad, has been my way of processing, just, life. And it struck me hard to see even just a split second of that in the movie.
Also the reverence Spielberg shows for the physicality of film, the detail shots of him handling it and working the machines, I loved that. It reminded me of what it was like as a kid in a relatively pre-digital world still working with tapes and machines to make little movies, and how much of a physical skill it was. And his experimentation with how to make special effects work! I also used small firecrackers like that to simulate gunshots, and I experienced something very similar to the scene where he shows his film to the group of kids who were stunned into silence and attention at the explosion effects (though mine was a classroom instead of a scout troop). That moment where they stop giggling at seeing their friends on screen and suddenly
believe what's going on, that's priceless. And I also had the experience of making and showing a film for the graduating class of my high school, so watching him set the projector up in the middle of the gym was kinda giving me stress flashbacks.
Okay I didn't mean to make this all about me but like... I guess that's how the movie made me feel. With some exceptions in the social/familial side of the story, I saw a lot of myself up on the screen today. And I loved that, because it's quite rare for me to really feel seen in a movie. Also I've always loved film and this movie so obviously does, too, so it's like watching a movie about something I'm interested in except that thing I'm interested in happens to be
movies themselves. And I think that's really neat how the experience sorta folds in on itself like that.
But yeah, Michelle Williams made some odd choices. Though in looking stuff up, I see Spielberg's mother really did go through bad depressive episodes and really did bring home a pet monkey, so with Spielberg himself directing her as his own mom it makes me wonder if she really was kinda like that in real life..?
Also Judd Hirsch's taxi driver looked so much like Ray Liotta that I did a double take.
lol, Judd Hirsch. Taxi.