autobiography film review

an image, when javascript is unavailable

‘Autobiography’ Review: Sleek, Sinuous Thriller Delves Into Indonesia’s Heart of Darkness

Makbul Mubarak's engrossing, expertly made debut explores one young man's loss of innocence in a society robbed of innocence by the military dictatorship decades ago.

By Jessica Kiang

Jessica Kiang

‘Through the Graves the Wind is Blowing’ Review: Travis Wilkerson’s Playful, Political Essay Set in Split, Croatia 1 month ago
‘All Shall Be Well’ Review: A Found Family is Lost in a Tender But Tentative, Queer-Themed Grief Drama 1 month ago
‘The Roundup: Punishment’ Review: Beefy International Treasure Don Lee Goes Places and Punches People and What More Could We Want? 1 month ago

The spider returns. General Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara), recently a towering figure in the military dictatorship, has retired and is coming home to run for Mayor of the region. Rakib, whose family has been in service to the general’s for four generations, is expected to chauffeur him around, wait on him, be an obedient, dog-like companion. At first Purna is offhand with Rakib, impatient. Soon, though, the young man starts to look on the general as a kind of father figure, perhaps for all the ways, in power and influence, he is different from his actual father, who is incarcerated with no apparent hope of release, and for whom Rakib has nothing but disdain. “You look like me when I was your age,” says the general with the approving air of one whose walls are hung with portraits of himself. Rakib starts wearing the military jacket the general provides.

Although the film features crowd scenes and a full cast of supporting characters, it is essentially a two-hander, and both Swara (recently seen in Kamila Andini’s “Before, Now and Then”) and Ardilova (who played in Andini’s “Yuni” as well as Edwin’s Locarno-winning “Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash”) are remarkably persuasive. Swara’s narrow-eyed Purna, essentially a lean, vain, Indonesian Col. Kurtz, can turn on a dime from malicious and very probably mad, to genial and fatherly. And by the end when all those qualities exist simultaneously, his is a deeply disturbing portrait of absolute power’s ability to corrupt absolutely. Ardilova is equally strong, in a role that requires him to age psychologically without aging physically; in the few months the films traces he goes from surly youngster to cocky sidekick to disillusioned, soul-sick penitent, who knows he’s ventured too far into the mire to ever be able to get out clean.

It’s a moral murkiness that DP Wojciech Staron interprets visually, in layered images that, especially in interiors, are usually partially impeded in some way. The camera peers at the characters through grilles or furnishings or windows that cast diffuse reflections across the frame. At times this technique becomes a little overbearing especially later, when Rakib’s inner turmoil and the sense of walls-closing-in claustrophobia are better demonstrated by counterpoint, as in a scene of revelry occurring — in line with the immutable laws of recent Southeast Asian arthouse cinema — in a karaoke parlor. Such moments offset Mubarak’s directorial restraint, which, while commendable, can occasionally mute the drama down to a barely audible murmur, where a howl, or a tuneless forced duet on a schmaltzy local pop hit, would be more fitting.

But in large part, “Autobiography” is an auspicious, atmospheric first feature that knows how to co-opt generic conventions and a richly cinematic style, in order to illuminate some of the the darkest recesses of Indonesia’s recent history. Without laboring the allegory overmuch, Mubarak, working from his own nicely pared-back screenplay, builds up a convincing if despairing vision of the legacy of atrocity, in which the children of the Indonesian dictatorship era can only fully reckon with their nation’s violent past by taking on some of its attributes themselves, at significant cost to their souls. As such, the chess games that Purna, the representative of the venal old guard, plays with Rakib, standing in for the new generation, are an imperfect metaphor, considering the desperately unfair terms of engagement that Indonesia’s youth have inherited. But then, is there a game where one side wrote the rules, owns the board and controls all the pieces, while the other can only field one trembling pawn?

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Horizons), Sept. 10, 2022. Also in Toronto Film Festival. Running time: 115 MIN.

Production: (Indonesia-France-Singapore-Poland-The Philippines-Germany-Qatar) A Kawankawan production, in co-production with In Vivo Films, Protocol, Staron Film, Cinematografica, Niko Film, Focused Equipment, Partisipasi Indonesia. (World sales: Alpha Violet, Paris.) Producer: Yulia Evina Bhara. Co-producers: Louise Bellicaud, Claire Charles-Gervais, Jeremy Chua, Malgorzata Staroń Armi Rae Cacanindin, Nicole Gerhards, Amerta Kusuma, Robin Moran, Pinkan Veronique, Arya Sweta, Ganesya.
Crew: Director, writer: Makbul Mubarak. Camera: Wojciech Staroń. Editor: Carlo Francisco Manatad. Music: Bani Haykal.
With: Kevin Ardilova, Arswendy Bening Swara, Yusuf Mahardika, Lukman Sardi, Yudi Ahmad Tajudin Rukman Rosadi, Haru Sandra. (Indonesian dialogue)

More From Our Brands

Tesla settles lawsuit over fatal autopilot crash of apple engineer, two restored barns add to the bucolic charm of this $12.5 million hamptons farmhouse, fifa-relevent settlement may abet european league matches in u.s., the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, fallout to get early full-season drop on amazon — find out when, verify it's you, please log in.

Autobiography (2022): ‘TIFF’ Review – An strikingly impactful coming-of-age debut

From a broader perspective, the film belongs to the coming-of-age genre, but it also delves into topics like a power struggle, socio-political hierarchy, class divide between the rich and the poor, and fatherly issues. Due to the complex narrative of the story, the film goes through a lot of tonal shifts. It starts as a self-reflective story of a struggling young adult, then slowly morphs into a palpable thriller and eventually ends as a tale of revenge and maybe justice to some extent. However, that mostly works out due to a solid screenplay, smart editing, and adept direction.

High On Films in collaboration with Avanté

Things soon take a dark turn for Kib as he begins to realize that Purna is not exactly a man who follows any moral code. He is, in fact, a power-hungry vindictive old man who would not accept any criticism of his ideology or beliefs. Interestingly though, several times in the film, Purna addresses Kib as “son” and introduces him as someone who is like a son.

Instead of using explosive dialogues and thunderous action set pieces, the director relies on atmospheric tension, ominous interactions, and very strategically put plot devices. Several scenes have been carefully written in order to establish Purna’s authority over the town and its people. In the very first scene, Kib is shown closely following a chess game of Viswanathan Anand.

Mubarak’s vision for Autobiography has been taken a notch higher by the camera work of Wojciech Staron and the editing of Carlo Francisco Manatad. By creating a color palette largely dominated by grey, blue and green to create a fitting atmosphere, taking both close-up and mid-length shots, and using the right kind of light to justify the shifts in the narrative, Staron deserves a lot of credit for making the film what it is. Manatad, on the other hand, has managed to make this film pretty easy to follow despite its complex story. The two lead actors, Ardilova and Swara have given extremely nuanced, realistic performances. Most essentially, Mubarak has shown both promise and confidence with his direction here.

Not all coming-of-age tales end with a green pasture. While the climax totally justifies the nature of the story, it is far from what can be called satisfying. It rather reflects the harshness of life and leaves the audience with a bitter aftertaste, making the film more real and honest. Mubarak, who used to be a film critic and has made a number of praiseworthy short films, deserves a round of applause for making a feature film debut as impactful as this.

Autobiography was screened at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival

Read more: river of blood [2021]: ‘tiff’ review – a tale of cyclic revenge that reflects potential, autobiography (2022) movie liks – imdb autobiography (2022) cast – kevin ardilova, arswendy bening swara, trending right now.

50 Best Japanese Movies of the 21st Century

Rohitavra is an aspiring writer, who currently works as a Government employee, to get by. He hopes that one day he'll make the big leap. But for now, movies, music, and books are what keep him alive.

Haunted Harmony Mysteries: Murder in G Major: Cast & Characters Explained, Plot, Release Date, Where to Watch, Trailer & Other Details

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (Season 2) Episode 6: Recap & Ending Explained – Losses or Just Obstacles towards Success?

Tokyo Vice (Season 2) Episode 8 Recap and Ending Explained – What was the meeting with Yabuki in the pilot episode about?

Has ‘Fake Profile’ Been Renewed for Season 2? Here’s What We Know!

Here’s Where to Watch and Stream Jafar Panahi’s New Movie ‘No Bears’ Online

Corpus Christi [2019] – An Anatomy of Crime joining with Religion

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

Start a new list…
Add all films to a list…
Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

Autobiography.

2022 Directed by Makbul Mubarak

A young man torn between loyalty and justice confronts the truth of his father figure that may destroy them both.

A young man working as a housekeeper in an empty mansion. When its owner returns to start his mayoral election campaign, the young man bonds with him and defends him when his campaign is vandalized, setting off a chain of violence.

Kevin Ardilova Arswendi Nasution Yusuf Mahardika Lukman Sardi Yudi Ahmad Tajudin Rukman Rosadi Haru Sandra Gunawan Maryanto Ibnu Widodo Mardiko Agus Nugroho Kun Baehaqi Almas Achmad Agus Budi Gondo Lifenya Kusuma Dewi Ganesya Iwan Siswoyo Dewi Qurrota'ayun Doris Khoirum Mohammad Fauzi Siti Fauziah Arya Sweta M. Reza Fahriyansyah

Director Director

Makbul Mubarak

Producers Producers

Nicole Gerhards Małgorzata Staroń Jeremy Chua Yulia Evina Bhara Louise Bellicaud Claire Charles-Gervais Robin Moran Pinkan Veronique Armi Rae Cacanindin Ganesya Arya Sweta Amerta Kusuma

Writer Writer

Editor editor.

Carlo Francisco Manatad

Cinematography Cinematography

Wojciech Staroń

Production Design Production Design

Sigit D. Pratama

Sound Sound

Jean-Guy Véran Waldir Xavier L.H. Aim Adi Negara Remi Crouzet

Costume Design Costume Design

KawanKawan Media FOCUSED equipment PŌTOCOL Staron Film NiKo Film In Vivo Films Partisipasi Indonesia Purin Pictures

France Germany Indonesia Philippines Poland Qatar

Releases by Date

03 sep 2022, 12 sep 2022, 06 oct 2022, 07 oct 2022, 08 oct 2022, 15 oct 2022, 22 oct 2022, 01 nov 2022, 09 nov 2022, 11 nov 2022, 12 nov 2022, 13 nov 2022, 15 nov 2022, 20 nov 2022, 21 nov 2022, 26 nov 2022, 29 nov 2022, 03 dec 2022, 04 dec 2022, 07 dec 2022, 12 feb 2023, 06 mar 2023, 09 mar 2023, 17 mar 2023, 25 mar 2023, 06 apr 2023, 07 apr 2023, 08 apr 2023, 21 apr 2023, 02 may 2023, 09 jun 2023, 11 jun 2023, 30 jun 2023, 23 jul 2023, 27 jul 2023, 28 jul 2023, 10 aug 2023, 19 oct 2023, 18 nov 2023, 19 jan 2023, 01 mar 2023, 16 sep 2023, 14 feb 2024, 13 apr 2023, releases by country.

Premiere Adelaide Film Festival
Premiere Sydney Film Festival
Premiere Melbourne International Film Festival
Premiere Rio de Janiero International Film Festival
Premiere Toronto International Film Festival
Premiere Beijing International Film Festival
Premiere Shanghai International Film Festival
Premiere Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Premiere Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
Premiere Helsinki Cine Aasia
Premiere Festival des 3 Continents
Premiere FilmFest Hamburg
Premiere Around The World In 14 Films Festival
Premiere Aegean Film Festival
Premiere Hong Kong International Film Festival
Premiere International Film Festival of India Goa
Premiere 17th Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival
Theatrical 17+
Digital 17+ Prime Video
Premiere Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
Premiere Venice Film Festival
Premiere TOKYO FILMeX
Premiere Vilnius International Film Festival
Premiere Luxembourg City Film Festival
Premiere Malaysia International Film Festival
Premiere Marrakech International Film Festival

Netherlands

Premiere CinemAsia Film Festival
Premiere Films from the South Festival

Philippines

Premiere QCinema International Film Festival
Premiere Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival
Premiere Kino na Granicy
Premiere Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
Premiere Auteur Film Festival
Premiere Singapore International Film Festival
Premiere Asian Film Archive

South Korea

Premiere Busan International Film Festival
Premiere Stockholm Film Festival
Premiere Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival
Premiere World Film Festival Bangkok
Premiere Istanbul Film Festival
Premiere BFI London Film Festival
Premiere Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Premiere New Directors/New Films Festival
Premiere Asian American International Film Festival

115 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by danielrah ★★★★½ 11

Analisis Dampak Jangka Panjang Kepemilikan Toyota Fortuner Terhadap Tingkat Aroganisme Manusia

Review by CinefoxxID ★★★★

Siap, Laksanakan!

"Seram tanpa setan" menjadi jargon utama dari film ini dan gw harus setuju bahwa film ini dapat menampilkan sosok yang lebih seram daripada setan, yaitu seorang jenderal pemilik mobil Fortuner

Dengan melihat poster dan judulnya, maka karakter Rakib & Purna ibarat 2 sisi koin berbeda dengan nilai yang sama. Sosok Purna sebagai seorang jenderal yang tampangnya malaikat & hati iblis serta Rakib yang amat lugu sebagai asisten Purna. Puas banget gw ngeliat Kevin Ardiloba & Arswendy dengan akting mereka yang bagus banget di sini

Lewat dialognya aja ini film udah tegang mampus. Sekedar pengumuman lewat toa masjid aja bisa dijadikan adegan yang bikin jantung rasanya nge-drop ke pantat. Musik & sound design-nya sih kerasa banget ngerinya pas ditonton di bioskop. Poin plus…

Review by Hikmat Darmawan ★★★★★

Ini nonton kedua kali, setelah dulu sempat nonton versi lebih mentah dalam pewarnaan dan suara. Jadi, ada perbandingan. Dan boleh dibilang, khususnya suara semakin menambah daya cekam film ini. Lanskap suara film ini menambah kedalaman --suara azan subuh masjid kampung bersahutan, tata musik yang atmosferik, napas memberat.

Menonton kali kedua, di bioskop Sala Darsena, dalam rangka world premier di Venice Film Festival. Mungkin ini memberi bias haru saat saya menonton. Film panjang pertama Makbul Mubarak ini, masuk kompetisi Horizon. Tapi, dengan menghitung kemungkinan bias itu, saya masih tetap melihat film ini adalah sebuah film politik yang penting.

Persisnya, sebuah metafor tentang rezim militer Soeharto dan generasi sesudahnya. Sikap ayah Rakib (ia dipenjara, rupanya terpaut urusan dengan sang jenderal purnawirawan) ketika…

Review by Daffa Akhmad ★★★★½

An intense and haunting look of how power and patriarchy still holds the number 1 steering wheel of society. Rakib and Purna, two human beings reflecting and facing on each other, shown in this film as raw as they can be, with the blacks and the whites of moral as their battlefield. Whether they realize it or not, but that battlefield is also a room of mirrors and see-through glasses full of a nation(s) faith and destiny that is certainly not beautiful to reflect at. Sadly, the only thing we can do by the time being, is reflecting.

Review by Movie Diary

All the familiar fears of the "bad old days" in Indonesia played out in a new setting. The snitching 'intels,' kidnappings by military goons, and getting 'vanished' with no trace (except a few drops of blood that have to be cleaned). It's scary to think that at some point, oppression just becomes a norm and total obedience becomes a tradition, whether it's out of fear or the desire to please the big 'daddy' general.

Unfortunately, after taking the oppressor down, the lesson learned is not to prevent people like that from rising to power again, but to learn all their tricks so that now the new generation can have their turn to do as they please. I love the performances in this, especially from Arswendy Nasution's quiet but menacing character. Very well-made debut movie.

Review by ValTheMovieGuy ★★★★½

Makbul Mubarak casually dropping a masterpiece for his directorial debut

Review by athallah ★★★★

die a hero or live long enough to be berseragam

Review by al pacino ★★★★

the title absolutely refers to the country's unresolved collective trauma left by Soeharto's dictatorship. this is a masterpiece that somehow gets better the more times you watch it and the more you think about it.

Review by Allaam Faadhilah ★★★★ 1

pengabdi sersan

Review by KevinWimar ★★★★ 1

Sorry is a powerful word indeed. Arswendy Nasution nailed it 👏👏👏 - JAFF17 ( Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival 2022 )

Review by abswix ★★★★

film ini menjabarkan 5 huruf yang mengerikan; kuasa

sebuah evolusi karakter dari rakib, si bungsu pemalu yang "tidak tau apa2". akhirnya sang ayah pulang, mengajarkan rakib artinya kekuasaan dan takhta. rakib pun berubah, menjadi lebih kuat, lebih berani, dan lebih berkuasa. sampai akhirnya berhasil "menguasai" sang ayah. sebuah tensi kengerian yg berhasil dibangun dengan terstruktur, menciptakan ending yang eksplosif dan penuh kuasa.

Review by urzaiz ★★★★

“You look like me when I was your age.”

As a dude that was born in the 00s of course, I didn't get the exact "flick" of the film that plunges into a certain governmental period. Nevertheless, the film itself served as an interesting sample of what they say about the dictatorship. Autobiography presents a bold and dark story with exceptional execution whether from the actors' performances, the gloomy atmospheric tone and the tension of anxiety even from start to finish.

The film was focusing on two characters, which the main character is a young man and the other is an old man with an authority, and as the film goes we as the audience have given the visionary to…

Similar Films

Mentioned by

Select your preferred poster

Upgrade to remove ads.

Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account —for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example ), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!

site categories

Deadline’s contenders television 2024 reveals star-studded lineup, ‘autobiography’ director makbul mubarak says indonesia’s oscar entry is “about loyalty and legacy” – contenders international.

By Damon Wise

Film Editor, Awards

Venice Review: Makbul Mubarak’s ‘Autobiography’

Oscars: indonesia selects ‘autobiography’ for best international feature race.

“The inspiration comes from my family,” he said. “My mom, my dad, my uncle, my grandfather, they all worked for the government during the military dictatorship. As you might know, Indonesia was a country which, for more than 30 years, was ruled by a military dictatorship. After the regime collapsed in 1998, I started to observe the changes. It inspired me to write about loyalty and the remnants of the dictatorship in our minds. What is the effect of dictatorship on the youth, even after the dictatorship has collapsed? So, it’s a film about loyalty and it’s also a film about legacy, I think.”

RELATED: Deadline’s Contenders International – Full Coverage

Since it bowed at Venice last year, Autobiography has had a surprisingly long life on the festival circuit, striking a timely chord in the run-up to Donald Trump’s bid for re-election next year. “People are seeing their own country in this movie,” nodded Mubarak. “Even in countries whose political systems I’m not familiar with at all – like Morocco, for example which is a monarchy — the audience come and say, ‘Y’know I see my country in this film as well,’ which is a very nice surprise.

Check out the panel video above.

Must Read Stories

Prosecutors rip alec baldwin’s “lies & manipulation” ahead of manslaughter trial.

20th Century Studios Lands Bruce Springsteen Movie Starring Jeremy Allen White

Layoffs underway as part of film division reorg; 15 positions impacted, susie essman & jeff schaffer on ‘curb your enthusiasm’ series finale.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Review: Autobiography

by David Katz

04/09/2022 - VENICE 2022: Echoes of Indonesia’s 31-year dictatorship abound in the present, in debutant Makbul Mubarak’s sombre political drama

It would be beneficial to know some biographical facts about this film’s director, Makbul Mubarak , before delving properly into Autobiography [ + see also: trailer film profile ] , his debut feature, which has been given a plum spot in Venice ’s Orizzonti section, before heading across the Atlantic to Toronto later this month. Whilst it’s important not to over-emphasise real-life parallels or influences, what’s actually most pertinent here is the fact that the film’s story is only indirectly inspired by his family history: he grew up as the son of prominent civil servants, engaged in propping up the rule of the country’s former dictator Suharto. Autobiography aptly muses on the notions of loyalty and proximity to power, but renders them on a completely different social stratum, and also in a different historical era – the present day.

So, in this age of autofiction and the fashionability of personal memoirs, Mubarak beckons us to see the concept of “autobiography” in a more abstract sense. This is a tense, downbeat quasi-thriller, obsessed with atmospherically grimy bilateral compositions filmed through reflective surfaces, such as fungus-caked plexiglass windows. It feels like a dream that Indonesia, haunted by its past, is having about itself – a “national” autobiography – with its erstwhile fascist political structure eerily reflected in its central power dynamic between a regional mayor, General Purna ( Arswendy Bening Swara ), and his young enforcer.

Rakib, or Kib for short ( Kevin Ardilova ), this housekeeper-turned-confidant of the mayor, is the latest in his family’s long line to serve as house help at Purna’s estate (how interesting the idea of parallel dynasties is: of powerbrokers and the descendants of the “help” who nurse them and clean up their waste). Kib’s father is in jail, so Purna offers himself up as a surrogate father figure, and initially at least, Kib is totally up for it. His options at this stage of his young life are either to join his older brother as a building-site labourer in nearby Singapore, where he’ll be trafficked over the border by a local gangster, or to leave the General’s estate behind and join his security detail.

With a tone not far from Full Metal Jacket , Mubarak is showing how young, impressionable men can find solace and belonging not so much in fascist ideology, but more in suppressing their humanity to become robotically loyal soldiers for a cause – “born to kill”, to quote the aforementioned Kubrick film. Kib seems frighteningly empowered when he is forced to arrest a protester railing against the municipality’s planned hydroelectric plants, the impacts of which would harm the agrarian livelihoods of the area’s inhabitants. But the bleak fallout from this finds Kib being almost anti-redpilled, finally glimpsing some morality from being so close to power’s bleak source.

The presiding issue with Mubarak’s film is unfortunately its generic nature: it’s novel and exciting to see a major independent Indonesian film attempt to reckon with the country’s past, from a young and talented director at that, but still, this plot conceit is just too generic and familiar, and arguably could take place in any region. And it’s not surprising to read that it began life as a short film; the story sketched above struggles to sustain tension across its two-hour running time and feels devoid of a few more gradients in its plot arc. To circle back to the beginning, the imaginative empathy he attempts to create by placing himself in a very different person’s shoes can only go so far.

Autobiography is a co-production between Indonesia, France, Singapore, Poland, the Philippines, Germany and Qatar, staged by KawanKawan Media, In Vivo Films , Potocol, Staron Film , Cinematografica Philippines, NiKo Film , FOCUSED equipment and Partisipasi Indonesia. Its world sales are courtesy of Alpha Violet .

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

more about: Autobiography

REPORT: ScriptLab and FeatureLab @ TorinoFilmLab 2023

During the two days of pitching, Cineuropa turned its attention on two projects: La casa bianca from Italy, and Watch It Burn by Indonesian director Makbul Mubarak

28/11/2023 | TorinoFilmLab 2023

The TFL Meeting Event returns with 30 projects selected for the ScriptLab and the FeatureLab

The 16th edition of the Torino co-production market will be held between Friday 24 and Saturday 25 November and will involve over 200 audiovisual professionals

21/11/2023 | TorinoFilmLab 2023

European titles submitted for the Oscars race

European countries reveal their titles submitted for the Best International Feature Film Award at the 2024 Academy Awards

17/10/2023 | Oscars 2024

Alpha Violet sells two new talents in Venice

The French sales agent will bet on Foremost by Night by Spain’s Víctor Iriarte in Giornate degli Autori and Hoard by British director Luna Carmoon in Critics’ Week

23/08/2023 | Venice 2023 | Venice Production Bridge

Alpha Violet to boast a Golden Bear candidate in Berlin

The French international sales agent will be wagering on Tótem by Mexican director Lila Avilés, which has been selected in competition and is co-produced by the Parisian firm

02/02/2023 | Berlinale 2023 | EFM

Have You Seen This Woman? crowned as the champion of the Festival of Auteur Film

Safe Place and Pelican were also among the winners of the 28th edition of the Serbian arthouse film gathering

05/12/2022 | Festivals | Awards | Serbia

Holy Spider scoops Stockholm’s Bronze Horse

Ali Abbasi’s explosive venture into darkest Iran has won the Best Film and Best Actor Awards at the Swedish gathering

21/11/2022 | Stockholm 2022 | Awards

Six First Cut Labs are on the lookout for their next projects

After enjoying its most successful year yet, the consultancy programme is awaiting new projects for its upcoming editions, dotted around the globe

07/11/2022 | First Cut Lab 2023

The 79th Venice Film Festival announces the winners of its parallel awards

Santiago Mitre’s Argentina, 1985 and Makbul Mubarak’s Autobiography have scooped the two FIPRESCI Prizes, whilst Alex Schaad’s Skin Deep won the prestigious Queer Lion

10/09/2022 | Venice 2022 | Awards

VENICE 2022: Echoes of Indonesia’s 31-year dictatorship abound in the present, in debutant Makbul Mubarak’s sombre political drama

04/09/2022 | Venice 2022 | Orizzonti

related news

04/04/2024 Films / Reviews – Spain/Romania

Review: Birds Flying East

03/04/2024 Films / Reviews – Italy

Review: Zamora

02/04/2024 Movies that Matter 2024

Review: When I Close My Eyes

28/03/2024 Films / Reviews – Austria

Review: What a Feeling

28/03/2024 Cinéma du Réel 2024

Review: Leaving Amerika

27/03/2024 Sofia 2024

Review: The Trap

Copyright Disclaimer

The images used on this website have been provided by journalists and are believed to be free of rights. However, if you are the owner of an image used on this website and believe that its use infringes on your copyright, please contact us immediately. We will remove the image in question as soon as possible. We have made reasonable efforts to ensure that all images used on this website are used legally and in accordance with copyright laws.

About us | Contact us | Logos and Banners

Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux
Novel Encounters: The films of Lee Chang-dong

Autobiography

A layered and atmospheric drama that lures you in…

Premiering at the Venice Film Festival in 2022, Autobiography is the debut feature from Writer/Director Makbul Mubarak that has since garnered many awards, nominations and interest. A parable about violence within the governmental system, the narrative tells the story of Rakib (Kevin Ardilova) who, through a generational familial connection, is the housekeeper for General Purnawinatal (Arswendy Bening Swara) who returns to start his electoral campaign for regent of the region. A single act of vandalism that Rakib investigates on his behalf has violent consequences that shake his worldview and how he wants to live.

The General has a paternal attitude to Rakib whose own father is in jail and whose family seems scattered. Inspiring loyalty and humanising the General in conversations with his family, teaching Rakib how to shoot and how to calm locals with simple apologies. His gentle admonishments and benevolence however is a thin veneer, so easily shattered when some of his campaign banners are vandalised and torn up. His fatherly actions become uncomfortable and a way of exerting control. Rakib’s quiet nature comes from a lack of confidence and inexperience of the world, his initial attempts to break free never quite make the cut.

Director of Photography Wojciech Staron takes full advantage of the land and atmosphere of the filming location in Bojonegoro, East Java with well-timed lighting and composition. This, along with the minimal score from Bani Haykal, gives a real feel of the humidity and oppression of the climate to reflect the unfolding events. The production design of the interiors consistently echoes the idea that a game of chess is being played between the old guard and methods of governance and the new generation that wants change. We even see the two main protagonists play chess or listen to a game in English – the experienced political hand of the General against that of the naive Rakib. It might seem a little on the nose, but it works well, getting to you to try and anticipate the next move in the “game”.

You don’t need to know the full history of the genocides that have happened in the past, or the complex events that made Indonesia the place it is today. You understand through this film how the old regime maintained its power and how the wearing of a uniform gives power, designates it in interactions and changes attitudes. Rakib changes through the film on an emotional level, while the sham layers of the General’s form of democracy are revealed, both excellent performances from the veteran actor Swara and Adilova.

Released on Amazon Prime in the Asia region in April, I suspect this is where it will be found in most regions once the festival circuit is done. It’s one I am keen to rewatch, its atmosphere and direction will still be lingering in my mind long after the festival is over.

Autobiography screens as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival 2023 . See the official site for more details.

About the author.

Subscribe now!

Check your inbox or spam folder now to confirm your subscription.

On this day Three years ago

Bleak, experimental but lacking emotion... (more…) Read on →

On this day Five years ago

Chinese visual festival full programme has been announced.

Director Stanley Kwan will be in attendance for the UK premiere of ‘First Night Nerves’ and screenings of ‘Rouge’ and ‘Women’… (more…) Read on →

On this day Eight years ago

Asian film news weekly round up: 2nd april....

This week's news: Jackie Chan's tax scandal, Ten Years wins big and Liu Ye becomes French Riviera Ambassador (more…) Read on →

On this day 10 years ago

Sayonara jupiter.

It’s like 2010 but with Zero-G sex. Don’t say you weren’t warned… (more…) Read on →

On this day 12 years ago

Meet mr. daddy and park kwang-su q&a.

A cute kid, eye surgery, the wrong bull and a director reluctant to talk about it – so perhaps not the best choice for a Q&A... (more…) Read on →

Trending this month...

The best in festival coverage

Coverage of New York Asian Film Festival 2022

Coming soon*

Hit Me Anyone One More Time 9 April, 2024
No Mercy for the Rude 11 April, 2024
Poetry 12 April, 2024

Never miss a post!

From around easternKicks.com

The best from over 21 years of Asian film reviews, interviews, features and news...

Go-Go Sisters

A joyous Vietnamese remake of a modern Korean classic, that’s simply way, way better than it has any right to be…

A beautiful portrait of north western China’s Yugur minority people and how desertification is impacting their lives…

Burned Wings

A raw and unique image of China’s low-life young gangsters…

Pema Tseden returns to familiar territory with a wry, satirical gaze on contemporary Tibet…

Crush and Blush

An overlooked antidote to formulaic Korean Rom-Coms showcasing the talents of Gong Hyo-jin…

Socialphobia

Social commentary and murder mystery meet in this ambitious Korean indie…

Privacy Overview
Strictly Necessary Cookies

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Pedoman Media Siber
Kebijakan Privasi

Review Film Autobiography (2023)

Autobiography

Arswendy Bening Swara
Kevin Ardilova
Rukman Rosadi
Yusuf Mahardika
Makbul Mubarak
19 January 2023

*Spoiler Alert: Review film Autobiography mengandung bocoran yang bisa saja mengganggu kamu yang belum menonton.

Penggemar film-film kelas festival pastinya enggak asing dengan salah satu festival film bergengsi di dunia, yaitu Venice Film Festival. Indonesia mendapatkan kesempatan untuk memeriahkan Venice Film Festival 2022 dengan penayangan film Indonesia yang berjudul Autobiography . Hebatnya lagi, Autobiography mendapatkan standing ovation selama 4 menit pada penayangannya di Venice Film Festival 2022.

Autobiography merupakan film debut Makbul Mubarak sebagai sutradara film panjang. Sebelumnya, Makbul lebih aktif dalam menggarap film pendek. Selain menyutradarai, Makbul juga berperan sebagai penulis naskah. Film ini dibintangi oleh deretan aktor ternama, di antaranya Kevin Ardilova, Arswendy Beningswara, Rukman Rosadi, dan aktor Indonesia lainnya.

Autobiography berkisah tentang Rakib yang bekerja sebagai penjaga rumah kosong milik seorang jenderal bernama Purnawinata. Pada suatu hari, Purna kembali mengunjungi rumah tersebut untuk melakukan kampanye sebagai calon bupati di kampungnya. Rakib pun menemani Purna selama kegiatan kampanye dan menemukan hal yang tidak terduga tentang majikannya.

Review film Autobiography

Sentil isu penyalahgunaan kekuasaan yang dekat dengan realitas.

Dari awal hingga akhir film, Autobiography mengajak penonton hanya fokus pada pembangunan hubungan antara dua karakter utama di film ini, yaitu Rakib dan Purna. Purna diceritakan sebagai seseorang berpangkat jenderal yang tentunya punya kekuasaan dan disegani oleh orang di sekitarnya. Di sisi lain, Rakib adalah pembantunya Purna yang tentunya harus patuh kepada majikannya.

Dimulai dari hubungan antara pembantu dan majikan, yang masih terasa canggung bagi Rakib. Kecanggungan di antara keduanya semakin berkurang ketika Purna mulai mengenalkan gaya kehidupan penguasa kepada Rakib. Rasa kagum kepada Purna mulai timbul dari diri Rakib, bahkan Rakib mulai berlagak seperti orang penting di sekitar temannya, semenjak dia mendapatkan kepercayaan dari Purna.

Keseluruhan film ini secara garis besar menceritakan bagaimana kekuasaan bisa disalahgunakan dan membuat seseorang bersikap semena-mena, yang diwujudkan lewat karakter Purna. Dengan status jenderalnya, Purna dapat membuat orang di sekitarnya menjadi tidak berdaya, bahkan hanya dengan kata-kata yang halus tetapi tajam.

Kamu yang sudah menonton Autobiography pastinya setuju bahwa isu yang diangkat film ini sebenarnya sangat relate pada realitas kita. Enggak jarang, ‘kan, kita melihat bagaimana seseorang bertingkah seenaknya karena punya jabatan atau karena punya koneksi dengan orang lain yang punya jabatan. Ditambah lagi, konflik yang diangkat film ini juga pernah terjadi pada kehidupan bermasyarakat di kehidupan nyata.

5 Aktor Hollywood yang Mengecam Adegan Intimnya di Film
5 A.I. di Film Hollywood yang Sukses Bikin Mimpi Buruk
Villain Film The Flash Bocor lewat Merchandise Resmi

Intensitas yang terus terbangun lewat pace film yang lambat

Perlu diketahui, Autobiography merupakan film yang pace penceritaannya memang lambat. Namun seiring berjalannya film, intensitas ketegangan yang dibangun terus meningkat secara perlahan-lahan. Nah, intensitas yang terus dibangun hingga akhir film ini pada akhirnya membuat penonton jadi terus mengikuti ceritanya dan mungkin tidak akan masalah dengan pace -nya yang lambat.

Penceritaan dengan pace yang lambat sebenarnya adalah treatment yang tepat untuk Autobiography karena film ini memang fokus dalam pembangunan hubungan antara Rakib dan Purna. Dari orang yang saling tidak kenal, menjadi saling mempercayai, hingga hilangnya kepercayaan yang menimbulkan rasa takut bagi Rakib kepada Purna.

Intensitas filmnya mulai terbangun sejak Purna pertama kali muncul di layar. Sejak awal kemunculannya, penonton langsung dibuat merasa enggak nyaman dengan sosok Purna ketika dia mengatakan kalimat yang cukup sederhana, “Siapa bilang saya minum kopi?” Seiring berjalannya film, semakin banyak sisi-sisi gelapnya Purna yang terungkap yang membangun rasa ngeri dari film ini.

Tega Banget! 7 Film Hollywood Ini Menyiksa Binatang saat Proses Syuting
Rekomendasi Film Indonesia 2023 yang Layak untuk Ditunggu
Saking Bencinya dengan Seri Film G.I. Joe, Channing Tatum Minta Karakternya Dibunuh di Film Keduanya

Kolaborasi Kevin Ardilova dan Arswendy Beningswara yang juara!

Autobiography memang menampilkan banyak aktor Indonesia kenamaan di dalam filmnya. Namun, film ini jelas memberikan sorotan besar kepada kolaborasi Kevin Ardilova dan Arswendy Beningswara yang menjadi pemeran utamanya. Sebagian besar film ini lebih banyak menampilkan akting dari kedua aktor tersebut.

Kevin, yang berperan sebagai Rakib, tampil begitu sempurna dan berhasil membuat penonton merasa bersimpati dengan karakternya. Kevin mampu menyampaikan ketakutan yang dialami Rakib kepada penonton. Sang aktor bahkan tampil cukup berani dengan melakoni adegan yang mana dia dimandikan oleh karakternya Arswendy. Kevin pun enggak menampik bahwa adegan tersebut sangat menakutkan baginya .

Selain Kevin, bersiaplah dibuat lebih tercengang dengan menyaksikan penampilan Arswendy sebagai Purna. Lewat akting apiknya, Arswendy berhasil membuat Purna menjadi karakter yang begitu menakutkan tanpa terlihat berusaha keras. Sejujurnya selama menonton film ini, saya benar-benar dibuat geregetan dengan Purna.

Enggak Kerasa, 7 Film Indonesia Terkenal Ini Sudah Berumur 10 Tahun!
7 Film Indonesia Terbaik Rilisan 2022 yang Tayang di OTT
Avatar: The Way of Water Geser Posisi Spider-Man: No Way Home sebagai Film Terlaris di Masa Pandemi

Gelap, tidak berdaya, dan meresahkan bisa dibilang merupakan kata-kata yang tepat untuk menggambarkan Autobiography . KIsah tentang si pejabat yang menyalahgunakan kekuasaannya dan si asisten rumah tangga yang tidak berdaya berhasil menjadi sebuah kritik yang relate bagi kondisi masyarakat di kehidupan nyata. Ditambah lagi dengan aktingnya Arswendy Beningswara yang terlihat begitu effortless membuat Purna menjadi sosok yang meresahkan.

Setelah baca review film Autobiography , apakah kamu jadi tertarik menonton film drama ini? Buat yang sudah menonton, jangan lupa bagikan pendapat kamu tentang film ini, ya!

Stay Updated!

autobiography
review film

Review Serial Manhunt (2024)

Review Film The First Omen (2024)

Review Film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Review Film Keluar Main 1994 (2024)

Review Film Road House (2024)

Review Film Arthur the King (2024)

The 9 Best Autobiographical Movies By Acclaimed Directors

From 'The 400 Blows' to 'Lady Bird,' directors have a long history of looking inward at their own past.

You can't go home again, but you can recreate it on film. Oftentimes, a director will take a semi-autobiographical approach to a film early in their career, when the story that they feel most compelled to tell is one of their childhood or teenage years. Other times, a director farther along in their careers is able to light a new creative spark by mining their own past. Luckily, most of these films ended up being either commercially or critically successful, so there clearly is an audience for these types of ultra-personal films. With the upcoming releases of The Souvenir: Part II and Belfast , as well as a Steven Spielberg autobiographical film on the way, there seems to still be a place in cinema for directors telling their own story.

Here are some of the best:

RELATED: The Most Inaccurate Biopics of All Time

The 400 Blows (1959)

François Truffaut ’s debut is not just one of the most influential movies ever made, but also introduced the way in which a director could tell their own personal story with breathtaking intimacy. The 400 Blows centers on Antoine Doinel, a kid who can’t help but get into trouble on the streets of Paris. Much like the young Truffaut, Antoine comes from a somewhat fractured family, being passed around to live with various family members before finally living with his mother and stepfather. However, despite Antoine’s troubles with his parents and the authority figures at school who can’t figure out what to do with him, we see that cinema is an escape for him. This hints at the obsessive nature towards cinema Truffaut would adopt as an adult while writing for the film magazine, Cahiers Du Cinema, with many other cinephiles-turned-directors who would create the French New Wave. One of the ideas that Cahiers Du Cinema emphasized was the auteur theory, in which the director is the sole author of a film, much like the author is to a novel. It’s hard to think of a better early example of this than The 400 Blows , since by incorporating the story of his own childhood and the kinds of playful techniques that Truffaut would return to throughout his career, it’s impossible to imagine the film being made by anyone else.

Amarcord (1973)

While The 400 Blows sees its director looking at the past from the perspective of its teenage protagonist, Armarcord feels much like we’re experiencing a flood of memories coming back to the director as he looks back on his youth. The film sees director Federico Fellini returning to the coastal town in Northern Italy that he grew up in, Rimini. Specifically, it sees him recreating the time in which Mussolini’s Fascist party had seized power in Italy, though before the tumultuous era surrounding World War II. The film is less interested in making a political statement than it is in showcasing a revolving door of colorful characters that exemplify the kind of vibrancy and humanity that can still flourish even when those in power are trying to oppress them. It makes for a film that perhaps ends up smoothing over some of the rough edges of this period in Italian history, but the affection that Fellini has for these characters is truly infectious, and whether any of them are real or imagined, show how much these types of people had stuck in Fellini’s mind even in this later stage of his career.

Fanny and Alexander (1982)

It’s hard to think of a filmmaker more committed to exploring themes that only adults are forced to ponder than Ingmar Bergman . This makes it somehow fitting that Bergman decided to make his final film about childhood, and specifically a childhood not unlike his own, growing up in Upsala, Sweden. Originally conceived for Swedish TV as a 4-part miniseries and released theatrically in a trimmed down (but still sprawling) 188-minute version, Fanny and Alexander clearly contains subject matter that Bergman had no trouble diving head-first into. It’s one of Bergman’s warmest films, possibly due to the fact that the children whose eyes we see the film through are less encumbered by the cynicism and ponderousness that plagues the adults of Bergman’s other films. Still, Bergman manages to wrestle with the brutishness of the adult world by having Alexander (Bergman’s film avatar) constantly struggling with his bishop stepfather and his strict Christian morals. The most touching moment in the film might also be the most personal, when we see Alexander playing with a magic lantern, a moment that Bergman has thoroughly recounted from his own life that would hint at his future fascination with the magic of cinema.

Crooklyn (1994)

Though there is a character in Crooklyn that is a fictionalized childhood Spike Lee (he has oversized glasses and loves the Knicks), this is the rare example of a film that’s autobiographical for multiple storytellers. This is because while Crooklyn was directed by Spike Lee, and is undeniably a Spike Lee film in style and tone, he also wrote it with his two siblings Joie Susannah Lee and Cinqué Lee . This feels more than appropriate for a film centered on a family living in Brooklyn in the 1970s, who bear a resemblance to the real-life Lee’s (the family’s father is a composer and mother is a teacher, much like Spike Lee’s own parents). The film is an underrated little gem in Spike Lee’s filmography, and there’s something especially poignant about how he's less interested in exploring his own story than that of his parents’ struggles with raising a family as well as that of Troy, the lone girl of the siblings in the family. Reflecting on the film in 2017 , Lee said the three siblings who wrote the film were unintentionally writing a love letter to their mother, and it’s remarkable the way the film manages to radiate that warmth while not glossing over the fact that their family didn’t always grow up under ideal circumstances.

Almost Famous (2000)

This may be the hardest to relate to of all the films discussed here, and yet also might be the one where the director has claimed the most events in the film actually happened. Yes, through a series of fortuitous circumstances, a 15-year-old Cameron Crowe became a writer for Rolling Stone in the mid-70s, where he covered such rock luminaries as The Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. In Almost Famous , he turns these experiences into one streamlined story, as Crowe’s stand-in, William Miller ( Patrick Fugit ), finds himself in the same situation as the teenage Crowe, except going on tour with a fictional band called Stillwater. It’s a love letter both to ‘70s arena rock as well as the journalists that covered them, all while giving the 1970s the same wistful gaze that’s usually reserved for the 1960s. Even if Crowe's films have been ever-diminishing since, at least Almost Famous saw him as a golden god capable of the kind of sweetness few can pull off.

The Squid And The Whale (2005)

Noah Baumbach has stated a number of times that there’s a degree of fiction to The Squid And The Whale , even if the core of the movie has a lot of parallels to his parents’ divorce. Regardless, it’s hard not to connect some of the uncertainty in Walt ( Jesse Eisenberg ’s character and the film’s little Baumbach) to the grown-up Baumbach while making this film. He was reluctant to tackle subject matter so close to his own experiences, and at first, wanted co-writer Wes Anderson to direct. He also wasn’t sure that divorce was that interesting of subject matter and also didn’t think the world needed one more dramedy about New York intellectual types (though the fact that no one wants to watch Woody Allen movies anymore makes The Squid and The Whale an appealing alternative). However, this delving into more personal material paid off, as it rejuvenated a career that had stalled out after Baumbach’s '90s films and kicked off the middle period of his career that saw him etching more mature sketches of characters that are both charming and caustically annoying at the same time.

The Tree of Life (2011)

This, of course, is the hardest film to verify in terms of how autobiographical it is, since Terrence Mallick is one of cinema’s most notorious recluses. Still, one can’t help but get the sense that what’s on the film’s mind is also what’s on Mallick’s mind when he reflects on his childhood and his place in the universe. This is because the film focuses on the O’Brien family, who just like Mallick’s family, lived in Waco, Texas, and seemed to have an ambitious and domineering father much like the one Brad Pitt plays in The Tree of Life . The majority of the film takes place in this '50s Texas setting, with the most overtly autobiographical element being the combative relationship that the young boy Steve has with his father, which judging from the accounts of family friends , doesn’t seem dissimilar from Mallick’s own relationship with his dad. While the aimless architect that Steve grows up to be in the film’s present-day sequences doesn’t quite line up with Mallick himself, it still feels like we’re seeing a distillation of his feelings on nature and spirituality, even if he’ll never give an interview that'll reveal whether that’s true or not.

Lady Bird (2017)

Another instance where the director has made some comments to dispel the notion that a film is entirely autobiographical, as Greta Gerwig has said “nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know.” This is certainly believable, since the pugnacious teen we follow in Lady Bird doesn’t quite match the breezy energy we’ve gotten to see in Gerwig’s acting before she made the transition to directing . Seeing as Gerwig clearly has a love for collaborating with actors (and Saoirse Ronan ), the character could be seen as an amalgamation of the teenage Gerwig and what Ronan brought to the role. But whether the events in the film really happened to Gerwig or not, it’s hard to imagine any other director could evoke such a personal love letter to Sacramento. It’s far from the most romanticized California city on film, but watching Lady Bird , you’d never know it. Gerwig illuminates her own relationship with her hometown by evoking the complicated feelings everyone has with their hometown, and how even if you cursed it as a teen, it’s an inseparable part of who you are.

The Souvenir (2019)

Talking about how autobiographical The Souvenir is, Joanna Hogg initially wanted to deny any parallels to her own life, then saying “I thought it was ungenerous not to admit they’re my own memories.” Much like The Souvenir ’s protagonist Julie, Hogg was a film student in the early ‘80s who had a relationship with a much older man who was also a heroin addict. It turns out to be an eye-opening introduction to adulthood for Julie, and Hogg does a disarming job of filling the film with the feeling of discovery that comes with being that age, but also tempering it with the heartbreak of how thoroughly messed up this relationship is. Adding another layer of meta-reality to the film is the fact that Julie is played by Honor Swinton Byrne , the daughter of Tilda Swinton , who was actually a classmate of Hogg when she was in film school during the time depicted in the film. Also, with the coming of The Souvenir: Part II , much like the most pivotal times in any artist’s life, you could say this moment is just the beginning.

KEEP READING: The 25 Best Documentaries on Netflix Right Now

Facebook Icon
Twitter Icon

The Fabelmans , Steven Spielberg’s Portrait of Himself, Is a Self-Indulgent Slog

Back Issues

New issue out now. Subscribe to our print edition today.

Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical The Fabelmans is a dull, self-indulgent victory lap for the most victorious filmmaker in history.

Still from The Fabelmans . (Universal Pictures)

Steven Spielberg has always had mad filmmaking skills. Nobody doubts that, I should hope. Jaws ? The D-Day sequence in Saving Private Ryan ? Big chunks of Lincoln ? Probably many other sequences that I can’t think of now because I tend to hate Spielberg movies so much? All fantastically effective.

But Spielberg’s overall sensibility is so frustratingly dull and solemn and sentimental and corny, dragging down the possibilities of his talent, he’s always been the bane of my film-loving existence. Or at least, one of the main banes.

And The Fabelmans, currently playing in theaters, is Spielberg’s own autobiographical account of how he got that way. So it’s a massive, meta-Spielbergian tribute to himself, and for me, largely torture to watch.

To my surprise, the film is playing in indie art house theaters instead of in the big exhibition venues. But then, he’s courting “artist” status assiduously and has been for many years, since he’d so thoroughly conquered the box office with Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind , ET , and the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park franchises, there were no more profit-motivated worlds to conquer. He’s been trying to make the Alfred Hitchcock move from ultra-popular film entertainer to legendary genius auteur since the mid-1980s with serious films like The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Schindler’s List (1993), Amistad (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), A.I. (2001), Munich (2005), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and so on.

The Fabelmans continues this quest by treating Spielberg’s onscreen alter-ego, young Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), as a budding cinematic genius in a family divided into two camps — the artists versus the scientists. “Sammy’s like me,” says his mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams), a vivacious and gifted pianist steadily losing it in her entrapping wife-mother role, while Sammy’s mild-mannered workaholic father Burt (Paul Dano) charts an ever-upward career path as a brilliant electrical engineer getting in on the ground floor of computer development at RCA, GE, and IBM.

Of course, Sammy will actually represent both the artists and the scientists with his mastery of a form that combines the aesthetic with the technological. And some of the better moments of the film show how the kid Sammy ingeniously works out practical filmmaking problems on his own, like how to make it appear that guns wielded by kid cowboys in a bare-bones Western are actually firing — by poking tiny pinholes through the film itself, creating bursts of light at the end of the barrels.

Spielberg, working with his frequent collaborator Tony Kushner ( Munich, Lincoln, West Side Story [2021]), puts together a script that’s overly schematic and explains everything right into the ground. Take the first sequence that features the child Sammy (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord) going to his first movie, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). I wish I could say it was somehow meaningful that Spielberg would choose this notoriously mediocre spectacle by a director who made steadily less interesting but more popular films over a very long career. But it’s quite a literal-minded choice — that is, it’s actually the first film little Stevie Spielberg ever saw.

Little Sammy, though, is suddenly frightened about seeing the movie. So his father reassures him in rational engineering terms by explaining how film projection actually works, while his mother reassures him in expressive, emotional, arty terms by urging upon him the beautiful, exteriorized dream that is the cinematic experience. Neither parent realizes there’s going to be a big train-crash dramatized in this circus movie or that their son is going to be so terrified by it he’ll have to reenact the trauma repeatedly for some time afterward by crashing his new toy train set repeatedly. Ultimately, he finds that filming the crash spares the train set and is just as satisfying to watch.

Anxious that the audience won’t understand this common psychological process, Spielberg and Kushner have Mitzi say, long after it’s already clear, “Oh I see, he wants to get control over it. ”

Yes. That is correct. By doing so, he converts frozen fear into just enough scariness to be manageable and therefore thrilling. I guess we should be grateful Mitzi didn’t say all that too.

Overall, The Fabelmans is a sententious slog, like most of Spielberg’s attempts at profundity. Poor Michelle Williams has to strain every nerve and muscle to bring some vibrancy and tension to the film, mirroring her role as Mitzi, who’s marooned in the dull conventions of the 1950s middle class and trying to Auntie Mame her way through them. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Williams, a marvelous actor, pushed over into moments of goofy — almost clownish — overacting.

At first, I thought this was meant to be signaling serious mental illness, including developing psychosis. But it turns out that Mitzi is only deeply depressed at her stalled career as a concert pianist and a trained dancer, as well as by the loss of her true love, gregarious Bennie Loewy (Seth Rogen). He’s called “Uncle Bennie” by the kids because of his omnipresence in their lives. He even moves with them from New Jersey to Arizona when Mitzi insists on Burt getting Bennie a new job with GE too.

Note that by preferring Bennie to Burt, Mitzi is simply choosing the livelier electrical engineer. Both men are nice, smart, stable, nerdy, bespectacled Jewish guys who are kind to the kids. The killing off of Mitzi’s serious artistic endeavors, and her desperate extroversion as a way of compensating for her loss, is the most interesting thing about her, but it gradually devolves into a duller tale of being torn between two engineers.

It’s too bad, because the other loss is the far more riveting one, which reaches its bizarre and haunting peak midway through the film, during a fateful family camping trip, when Mitzi suddenly does an impromptu ballet performance in her nightgown, lit by the car headlights. Her daughters (Julia Butters, Keeley Karsten, and Sophia Kopera) are in an agony of embarrassment, especially because their mother’s body is visible through the nightgown as she dances, but the male campers — Burt, Bennie, Sammy — are all transfixed by this sudden, poignant, eccentric, erotic display of artistic expression that has no other outlet.

The emotional affair of Bennie and Mitzi that gets accidentally captured on camera by young Sammy during the camping trip amounts to tiny looks and gestures and touches, no more. Spielberg turns it into a study of what the camera can reveal that’s not seen by the naked eye, which is Film Studies 101 stuff, but always works like magic when dramatized well. As Sammy runs repeatedly over the same shot, backward and forward, in slo-mo, then in freeze-frames, the eye contact, the smiles, the hand on the waist that’s quickly withdrawn, seem to emerge from the celluloid itself and grow in dimension before our eyes.

Spielberg is going to represent this mild transgression and the eventual breakup of his parents’ marriage — after Mitzi tries for years to stay the course as the faithful housewife and mother — into tragedy worthy of grand opera. He’s long been noted for his representations of divorce as practically the worse fate that can befall a suffering humanity:

But, of course, the saga of Spielberg’s parents’ divorce, which he’s discussed in interviews many times, and which became the template for the broken homes in his own movies going back to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977), is not a subject that’s likely to get a lot of viewers revved.

I don’t see why it wouldn’t get a lot of Americans revved — it always has before. And it’s always worked on my last nerve, Spielberg’s stodgy 1950s middle-class attitude that life should all be smooth sailing and it’s an outrage when it’s not. I mean, how well do you expect everything to go? Spielberg’s father was a hugely successful pioneer in computers — the family income was steadily rising — the one not-nice home the family lives in is a rental house they have to put up with for a few months while their own splendid California-modern house is being built. And Steven Spielberg himself has been about as successful, from youth onward, as a human being can get, doing exactly what he always wanted to do.

Though admittedly, it’s shocking that, in the film’s depiction, antisemitism is worse in California than it is in Arizona, and teenage Sammy gets bullied by a couple of bigoted jocks. But through the power of cinema, he gets his revenge and thoroughly owns both of them by cutting together the graduating class tribute film to make one of them (Oakes Fegley) look like a total loser and the other one (Sam Rechner) look like a member of an Aryan master race winning athletic contests in Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia.

The master-race jock takes it the hardest because Sammy’s film has mythologized him in a way he can’t live up to. Though tall and handsome, he’s basically a weak, insecure mess of a teenager. He threatens Sammy about never telling anyone he broke down crying over the film, and Sammy says brightly, “I won’t — I mean, unless I decide to make a movie about it!”

And we’re watching that movie! Hah -ha!

Spielberg’s triumphal march through his own youth ends with his meeting one of his filmmaking heroes, John Ford, memorably played by David Lynch. (It seems Lynch turned the role down repeatedly for weeks, but Spielberg wouldn’t let it go.) It’s interesting, because Lynch is pretty much the anti-Spielberg, and for one short scene, Spielberg lets a kind of mild Lynch-like vision of American weirdness reign. When the irascible, eye-patched Ford lights one of his cigars, it seems to take a full minute of puffing at the huge flame, watched by the bug-eyed Sammy, till the act of lighting a cigar becomes divorced from its ordinary meaning and turns into an alarming act of igniting some incendiary inner force of Ford’s. And sure enough, Ford suddenly explodes into his usual choleric demands and questions that he answers himself, giving Sammy an intense, humorous, impious tutorial on how to make formally interesting art.

Which, by the way, is advice Spielberg — the king of normcore cinema — has rarely ever taken.

So although it’s more vivid than most, the last scene is ultimately the most irksome, teeth-grinding interlude of the film, because of the obvious torch-passing implication. Ford, often considered the greatest American filmmaker of his generation, even by other fabulous filmmakers such as Orson Welles, hands the flame of cinematic genius off to Spielberg making him the greatest of the next generation.

And of course, the whole reason we’re watching the film is because we all know that not long after the self-congratulatory end of the film, young Fabelman/Spielberg shot upward like an arrow through Hollywood, soaring from TV work to feature film directing the amazingly accomplished Duel (1971) at age twenty-five, then making it big — huge — with Jaws at twenty-nine.

We get it, Steven Spielberg! You’re very, very, very successful! Congratulations! Now please don’t make an autobiographical sequel entitled Fame, Fortune, and Fabelman or something, okay?

Review Film 'Autobiography': Kengerian yang Menyegarkan

Makbul Mubarak memulai debut penyutradaraan film panjang lewat Autobiography yang mulai tayang di bioskop Indonesia pada 19 Januari lalu.

Film Autobiography bercerita tentang Rakib (Kevin Ardilova) seorang remaja yang melanjutkan peran ayahnya, Amir (Rukan Rosadi), sebagai pelayan untuk seorang pensiunan jendral sekaligus calon bupati bernama Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara).

Hubungan Rakib dan Purba sebagai majikan dan pelayan awalnya berjalan baik. Rakib menaruh banyak kagum pada Purna yang disegani warga kampung tempat mereka tinggal.

Namun, sebuah kejadian tak terduga yang melibatkan seorang pemuda desa bernama Agus (Yusuf Mahardika) membuat pandangan Rakib terhadap Purna tiba-tiba berubah.

[KUIS] Tebak Poster Film Horor Ikonik Indonesia, Berapa Skormu?

Tentang kekuasaan yang bikin ngeri.

Autobiography sejatinya bicara soal bagaimana sebuah kekuasaan bisa begitu mengerikan jika disalahgunakan.

Lewat premis sederhana tentang hubungan majikan dan pelayan, atmosfer ngeri yang dibawa Autobiography sudah terasa sejak film dimulai lewat perkenalan Rakib dan Purna.

Lalu, film ini mencoba meneror penonton dengan dialog-dialog minim nan intimidasi Purna yang melebur dengan music scoring yang mencekam.

Meski menakutkan, Autobiography tetap terasa menggairahkan dan menyegarkan, khususnya sebagai pembuka film drama Indonesia pada awal 2023.

Performa Pemain yang Tak Main-main

Selain soal cerita yang menarik, performa jajaran pemain Autobiography juga tak kalah menyita perhatian.

Aktor kawakan Arswendy Bening Swara sukses menjelma sosok mantan jendral yang dingin. Mulai dari gerak-gerik, intonasi suara, serta tatapan mata tajamnya mampu menghadirkan kengerian yang tak bisa begitu saja dilupakan.

Tak hanya Arswendy, aktor muda seperti Kevin Ardilova dan Yusuf Mahardika juga memberikan penampilan terbaik dan sukses menghidupkan karakter mereka masing-masing.

Dengan kualitas akting yang tak main-main, chemistry antara karakter pun berhasil dibangun dengan baik.

Akhir kata, Autobiography merupakan salah satu film penting di awal 2023 yang sayang untuk dilewatkan.

Film ini tak hanya memberi sensasi ngeri, tetapi juga memberi angin segar untuk perfilman Indonesia 12 bulan ke depan.

autobiography
review autobiography
film indonesia

Film Makbul Mubarak 'Autobiography' Jadi Wakil Indonesia di Oscar 2024

Film 'My Sassy Girl' hingga 'Citadel' Siap Ramaikan Prime Video Mulai April

Cara Arswendy Bening Swara Hadirkan Sosok Jendral di 'Autobiography'

3+ Film Indonesia Tahun 2021 yang Raih Penghargaan Internasional

Film 'Wonderland' Dibintangi Gong Yoo hingga Suzy Akhirnya Rilis Jadwal Tayang

Sinopsis 'My Name is Loh Kiwan' Film Baru Song Joong Ki Tentang Pembelot Korut

Sel Gemas di 'Yumi's Cells' Bakal Dijadikan Film, Ini Jadwal Tayangnya

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Monkey Man Link to Monkey Man
The First Omen Link to The First Omen
The Beast Link to The Beast

New TV Tonight

Chucky: Season 3
Mr Bates vs The Post Office: Season 1
Fallout: Season 1
Franklin: Season 1
Dora: Season 1
Good Times: Season 1
Beacon 23: Season 2

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

1974, Drama, 1h 50m

Where to watch the autobiography of miss jane pittman.

Rent The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman on Prime Video, or buy it on Prime Video.

Rate And Review

Super Reviewer

Rate this movie

Oof, that was Rotten.

Meh, it passed the time.

It’s good – I’d recommend it.

So Fresh: Absolute Must See!

What did you think of the movie? (optional)

You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.

Step 2 of 2

How did you buy your ticket?

Let's get your review verified..

AMCTheatres.com or AMC App New

Cinemark Coming Soon

We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.

Regal Coming Soon

Theater box office or somewhere else

By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.

You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.

The autobiography of miss jane pittman photos.

Beginning during the racial turmoil of 1960s Louisiana, 110-year-old ex-slave Jane Pittman (Cicely Tyson) grants an interview to a persistent journalist and relates the remarkable story of her life. Orphaned early, she toils on a plantation until a chance meeting with a white Union soldier named Brown changes her outlook. Jane's emancipation marks only the beginning of an arduous and heartbreaking odyssey, framed by the horrors of slavery and the justice of the civil rights movement.

Rating: TV-PG

Genre: Drama

Original Language: English

Director: John Korty

Producer: Rick Rosenberg , Robert W. Christiansen

Release Date (Streaming): May 23, 2017

Runtime: 1h 50m

Production Co: Tomorrow Entertainment

Cast & Crew

Cicely Tyson

Jane Pittman

Richard Dysart

Master Bryant

Josephine Premice

Mme. Gautier

Young Jimmy

Joel Fluellen

David Hooks

Colonel Dye

Michael Murphy

Valerie Odell

Mister Robert

Thalmus Rasulala

Rick Rosenberg

Robert W. Christiansen

News & Interviews for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

20 Under-the-Radar Black Movies You Should Seek Out

Critic Reviews for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

Audience reviews for the autobiography of miss jane pittman.

There are no featured reviews for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman because the movie has not released yet ().

Movie & TV guides

Play Daily Tomato Movie Trivia

Discover What to Watch

Rotten Tomatoes Podcasts

International edition
Australia edition
Europe edition

Nell Tiger Free and Nicole Sorace in The First Omen

The First Omen review – stylish horror prequel is damned by its franchise

This 70s-set prelude to the classic satanic horror has flair but struggles with the weight and familiarity of what came before

W e didn’t need a prequel to landmark 1976 horror The Omen but we’d have been foolish not to expect one. The major genre films of that era – Halloween, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien, Suspiria – have all seen a new round of remakes, reboots and remixes in the last few years – some tolerable, most not – and so another Damien chapter is as inevitable as the rise of Damien himself.

It’s not the first time anyone has tried either. After the series sputtered out in 1991 with the cheapo gender-swapped TV movie Omen IV: The Awakening, the films went the way of most horror during that decade and it took until 2006, a time of anything-goes, mostly gutter-level remakes, for the sixes to align once again. It was a slickly made yet utterly soulless retread (released on 6 June of course) and it took another decade for the obvious small-screen demotion, with one-season dud Damien, following the problem child as he became a problem adult. Now we’re going way back to where it all began with The First Omen, announced back in 2016 with Christine’s Antonio Campos intriguingly attached, and now arriving without him but with the question that we ask ourselves every time Hollywood double dips: do we really need to be back here?

Surprisingly, it seems for a while that we actually maybe do? Crafted with more flair and written with more thought than the majority of studio horror films are at this current rotten moment, The First Omen charges out of the gate to rise above an admittedly low bar with all the confidence of an original. Like the bold, backwards trailer that’s being used to promote it, it’s far more artful and striking than it has any right to be, thanks in overwhelmingly large part to the TV director Arkasha Stevenson, whose bravado works incredibly well until it really doesn’t, when she’s forced to play by franchise rules rather than her own.

The story takes us back to 1971 as bright-eyed American Margaret (the Game of Thrones alum Nell Tiger Free) lands in Rome to begin a life of religious service. She’s immediately in awe of her idyllic surroundings and prepared to give herself to her god but there’s something awry. Margaret has noticed an othering of one of the girls, whose visions remind her of those she used to have, and the further she investigates what might be going on, the more she realises that something unholy is at play.

Given that most of us know of where and how Richard Donner’s original begins, it’s clear that a baby is on the way and right from a ghoulish early scene, Stevenson effectively maximises the body horror of childbirth. She has a keen eye for the grotesque, knowing how to burrow her way under the skin and pushes up against the limits of how far we expect a mainstream film such as this to go (there’s an effectively unsettling Possession homage that is one of many images that shall linger). It’s not all gory provocation though with her script, co-written by Tim Smith and Keith Thomas (almost making up for his hideous Firestarter remake), cleverly finding a new way into the old story and unlike so many other horror films about the devil, it’s not as shamelessly evangelical as we’ve come to expect (there’s a reason why the God-fearing Conjuring movies made so much money in the US). Religious fanaticism is as much of a danger as satanism here, a prodding throughline that puts the film into an interesting conversation with last month’s other nun-led horror Immaculate , also laying blame at the foot of the cross.

The Omen was released at a time when studio horror films were just as extravagant and cinematic as any other genre and Stevenson has followed in that tradition over much of the artless tack of today, her film as sumptuous and specific with its 70s recreation as any prestige-y drama might be. But it’s when the shadow of that film truly comes into view that things go downhill in a last act of obvious reveals and clumsy pretzeling, a film somewhat of its own forced to align itself with a franchise. It’s a messy bow on top of an otherwise pristinely wrapped gift, the final scene so distractingly bad it feels like the result of test audience meddling one can almost sense the moment that Stevenson handed back reins to the studio. The conclusion suggests that it may not be the last Omen but I’m far more interested to see what Stevenson can do next instead, allowed to fully step out of the shadow of what came before.

The First Omen is out in cinemas on 5 April

Horror films

Back to Black

The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.