i'll bite what is the fabelmans about

thank you for asking i hope you don't regret it <3

the fabelmans is a fictionalised version of steven spielberg's childhood and adolescence. it follows spielberg's self insert sammy fabelman (played by gabriel labelle) as he discovers his passion for filmmaking and begins to use it to cope with his control issues and anxiety. his father, burt (paul dano), is a computer scientist who discourages sammy's filmmaking, calling it a "hobby". he's a scientist, unfailingly logical and reasonable, and just doesn't understand the whole "artist" thing. he's also exceedingly kind and sweet, which makes him a bit of a pushover (people on tumblr write the absolute nastiest smut about him it takes up the whole tag). sammy's mother, mitzi (michelle williams), was a pianist who gave up any hope of being a professional musician when she got married and had kids. she's dreamy, flaky, and youthful (spielberg described his mother as a "peter pan" type - she never grew up), and while she loves burt and the kids she's implied to be both deeply unhappy and mentally ill (she's impulsive, she has periods where she can't get out of bed, and she's explicitly stated to suffer from panic attacks). sammy takes after his mother in basically every way - they're both artistic and ambitious and have panic attacks. throughout the film, burt and mitzi's marriage starts to fall apart and they eventually divorce as sammy watches and films it. there are also school subplots where sammy deals with anti-semitism, his first girlfriend, and a somewhat homoerotic relationship with a school bully.

the short version: it's about a kid watching his parents fall apart and wanting to shield both himself and his mother from the pain. it's also about how art can become an obsession that eats you alive and alienates you from everyone around you.