It has basically become a running joke in film geek circles about how much of Steven Spielberg’s filmography involves him fixating on his own parents. Filtered through the kind of industry-defining vision that would make him one of the medium’s most important figures, his films irrespective of genre have involved a lot of father/son conflicts, mourning the loss of connection with family, and just a general sense of unrest concerning authority figures. For decades, Spielberg has been using his complicated feelings about his parents’ divorce to define and later redefine what is now known as the ‘blockbuster’.
And now, it seems that he is ready to stop dancing around the subject, and just make a film about that event in his life... albeit with still a thin layer of fictionalisation, although still the thinnest that he’s applied yet. What comes out of it is not only Spielberg’s best work in years, but something that feels like it had to make.
