Tag Archives: Gabriel LaBelle

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Tin Roof, Rusted

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Snack Shack

by George Wolf

Four years ago, Adam Rehmeier’s Dinner In America arrived as a delightfully subversive 90s punk rock rom-com. Snack Shack finds the writer/director still navigating the 90s with hilarious R-rated delight, even as the punk rock ‘tude has been usurped by capitalistic dreams.

It’s 1991 in small town Nebraska, and teen best friends A.J. (Conor Sherry) and Moose (The Fablemans‘ Gabriel LaBelle) are coming hot into summer with some big plans. They score at the dog track, market their own homemade beer and are working more than enough angles to please the Gordon Gekko poster hanging on the wall.

But then an unexpected new hustle presents itself. The boys’ older friend Shane (Nick Robinson) – who’s a bit of a local hero thanks to his service in Kuwait – is home to manage the local pool, and he gives the foul-mouthed young Gekkos a tip on how to win the city council’s summer contract for the poolside snack bar.

Before long, business is booming, and that 75-cent upcharge for using ketchup to write “fuck” on a hotdog (a “fuckdog!”)is paying off big time. Will success go to their heads? Will A.J. earn enough cash for his Alaskan trek with Shane, AND earn the respect of his parents (David Costabile and Gillian Vigman, both priceless)?

And what about Brooke, the hot new lifeguard (Mika Abdalla)? Could she actually come between these hometown homies?

You’ll know where some of this is going, but Rehmeier’s script delivers foul, horny hilarity, and outstanding turns by both Sherry and LaBelle stand out in a letter perfect ensemble. The time stamp is again spot on, with Rehmeier’s freewheeling style crafting an infectious mashup of The Way Way Back, Superbad and Project X.

And most importantly, Rehmeier captures that zest for life on the cusp of adulthood without a whiff of pandering or condescension. The boys will do some growing up during this one crazy summer, and the film will grow up with them. Slowly, parents don’t seem quite as lame, the hijinx aren’t as silly and some important lessons about love, sex, death and friendship hang in the air just long enough to hit just hard enough.

Fuckdogs are still funny, though, homie, just like a surprise punch to the nuts.

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The Fabelmans

by Hope Madden

Steven Spielberg wants to tell you a story. A fable, if you will. And who better? He’s been telling tales since the beginning of the blockbuster era. Indeed, he himself defined the term blockbuster.

How did that happen? Well, once upon a time, somewhere in New Jersey, a computer genius and his artistic wife with the harsh bangs took their impressionable young boy to his first feature, The Greatest Show on Earth.

He’s enraptured, and for the next 2+ hours, Spielberg uses all the tools of his trade to likewise beguile you with his own origin story. In those moments, you will find everything Spielbergian – tech wizardry, cinematic wonder, artistry, sentimentality, family, loss – dance to life across the screen.

Michelle Williams delivers a buoyant, off-kilter performance as Mrs. Fabelman that electrifies the film. Paul Dano’s understated turn as her husband is easier to overlook, but he’s the story’s tender heartbeat. Spielberg’s stand-in, Sammy (played as a child by the lovely Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord and as an adolescent by Gabriel LaBelle), orbits these two poles, his direction in life a mysterious combination of the dueling forces.

Supporting work from Seth Rogan is engaging, and David Lynch’s cameo is priceless.

The script, co-written with Tony Kushner, feels more emotionally honest than anything the filmmaker’s yet made. And yet, the result is as cinematic ­– by definition inauthentic – as anything he’s made. Which honestly seems about right.

The Fabelmans is no Jaws, no Raiders of the Lost Ark or E.T. But it’s an exceptional movie about how those other movies could have ever happened. If you’ve watched Spielberg’s movies – his early masterpieces, in particular – you can feel the weight of his parents’ divorce. That’s the story he’s telling. How everything that led up to that split defined who he is as a filmmaker, as Steven Spielberg.