In this week’s edition of ‘At the Box Office’, Julia Swift is taking a look at two films — Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’, and Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’ (2022).

Julia calls ‘The Fabelmans’ one of Spielberg’s most personal films he’s ever made. “It actually is based on his childhood in Arizona and California” Julia says.

Spielberg made this film after both his mother and father passed away — and he really nailed the fine details of his childhood. Julia says it’s an inspirational film, but it can’t decided whether it’s about his mom, or him. “The truth is, both parts of the film work and play off each other really beautifully” she says. “Until the end — when it starts to delve into his love life, and you’re just like ‘no, cut that out'”! Overall, Julia says this one was one of the best of the year, but needed to be cut by about a half-hour.

Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’ has been highly anticipated this year — and Julia calls this one a very dark film. “The puppets are beautiful, it was beautifully designed” she says. “But the script — it’s making a lot of different comments on a lot of different sensitive subjects. It’s certainly not a kid’s movie — and I gotta be honest, I got bored!”

You can catch ‘The Fabelmans’ in theaters now, and ‘Pinocchio’ streaming on Netflix today.