Celebrated director Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans has opened to rave reviews garnering award season chatter during its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The semi-autobiographical tale is being hailed as another masterpiece from the iconic filmmaker, and this feature is deeply personal for Spielberg as it gives the audience an intimate look at his formative years. Per Entertainment Weekly, making this movie is the director's way of bringing his “mom and dad back.”

The Fabelmans is a coming-of-age drama that follows Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle), a young boy who aspires to make movies. The trailer perfectly encapsulates the theme of the movie as “family, art, life, it will tear you into two.” Sammy takes on his pianist mom, Mitzi (Michelle Williams) who is the “artist” of the family, while his dad Burt (Paul Dano) is the “scientist.” Spielberg co-wrote the screenplay with his longtime collaborator and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner. The director revealed that the duo started talking about the possibility of making the feature while making Lincoln and then “Tony kind of performed the function of a therapist, and I was his patient."

Though the director revealed that he was unsure when he’d "get around to make" the movie, elaborating, “It is not because I decided to retire, and this is my swan song, don't believe that.” The duo worked together through Spielberg’s childhood memories to pen down the intimate account of his formative years. And difficult realizations about the dynamic between his parents – all the while dreaming of becoming a filmmaker. Certainly, writing this personal account would have proven a cathartic process for Spielberg, he revealed, “I thought, if I was going to leave anything behind, what was the thing I need to resolve and unpack about my mom, my dad, and my sisters?” Further adding,

This film is, for me, a way of bringing my mom and dad back. And it also brought my sisters, Annie, Susie, and Nancy, closer to me than I ever thought possible. And that was worth making the film.

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Image via 20th Century Studios

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The Fabelmans also features Seth Rogen as Bennie Loewy, the honorary uncle to the Fabelman children, Judd Hirsch as Mitzi’s Uncle Boris, Jeannie Berlin as Sammy’s paternal grandmother, Hadassah Fabelman, Julia Butters as Sammy’s sister Reggie, Robin Bartlett as Sammy’s maternal grandmother Tina Schildkraut and Keeley Karsten as Sammy’s sister Natalie.

The Fabelmans will have a limited theatrical release starting on November 11 before expanding to theaters on November 23. Meanwhile, you can check out the new trailer below: