#900: The Fabelmans / The Eternal Daughter / Sr.

With THE FABLEMANS, what appeared to be Steven Spielberg’s portrait of the filmmaker as a young man turns out to be a more complicated autopsy of a family coming apart at the seams—that happens to have a budding filmmaker there to document it. Adam and Josh have lots of praise for Spielberg, his co-conspirator/co-screenwriter Tony Kushner, and the film’s cast, but a few minor issues may reflect a weakness that appears more broadly in the director’s work. Director Joanna Hogg has worked almost exclusively in an autobiographical vein: her acclaimed 2019 film “The Souvenir” and last year’s sequel “The Souvenir, Part II,” had Hogg revisiting and re-examining her film student days. Her latest, THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER, continues the director’s audacious self-reflexivity, this time casting Tilda Swinton in a double role as Hogg surrogate Julie and also as Julie’s mother, Rosalind. Hogg’s film is both a meta-meditation on what it means to be an artist—and a ghost story. Plus, Adam recommends Sr., a new doc about filmmaker - and Robert Downey Jr.’s dad - Robert Downey, Sr.

1:06 - Review: "The Fablemans"
36:35 - Next Week / Notes
43:44 - Polls
51:22 - Review: “The Eternal Daughter"
1:03:01 - Review (AK): “Sr.”
1:08:41 - Outro