West Side Story

Spielberg does it again! Another outstanding production under his direction. The cast was great, the singing was great but one major thing that stood out to me was the choreography. It couldn't have been any better, and I can't imagine the amount of training and dance practice that each actor had to go through. Job well done by every member of the cast and crew!

Living up to the highly praised 1961 movie musical of the same name, you'd think it would be hard for a reimagining to capture the same type of amazement that the original West Side Story movie had. But the 2021 version of this film is just as amazing as the original! Having director Steven Spielberg doing what he does best, you know you're in for a treat!

This one had a very talented cast as well from Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Mike Faist to name a few, and of course Rita Moreno herself! This version wasn't afraid to explore the inner workings of these characters. Which made for a very captivating experience.

Although it's not without it faults, the pacing felt a little strange in a few places. But it wasn't super noticeable as the story continued.

A benefit that this version has over the now 60-year-old original, there's more cultural awareness for the Puerto Rican characters that don't feel caricatures of what Hollywood believes all Puerto Ricans should appear. The use of Spanish dialogue allowed for a more authentic view into the lives of those characters when they weren't surrounded by members of the Jet's gang. Since this movie has been made well after the days of the strict guidelines of the Hays production code that took over Hollywood films from the 1930's to the late 60's, it allowed for this version to take more creative freedom and allow swearing, address racial issues, portray harsher violence, and display an emotionally darker tone that the 1961 version was unable to explore.

If you're "on the fence" about seeing this in theatres and waiting until it comes out on home video or streaming services, I suggested you should see it in theatres. This will give the most spectacular experience possible!

Watching west Side Stiry in a cold theatre with a mask, I was having a difficult time warming up to the movie. I kept thinking "why bother" with a remake. Then I realized the movie was still set in the 60's. And Spielberg wanted to set the record straight. The new West Side Story is about race.

In this production the Puerto Ricans were really Latino and spoke Spanish (no subtitles). The white kids were mostly sort of clueless, without much reason for being there. The Puerto Ricans had all the good lines, the believability, the energy.

I actually liked the performances a lot. Rachel Zegler as Maria was stunningly pure, almost unrealistically romanticized like a virgin princess. Ariana DeBose was tormented and fiery, and David Alvarez was the stealth show stealer of the production with his sexy, macho Bernardo.

The singing was outstanding. Rita Moreno sang and she still has a decent voice. But in retrospect, I was mist impressed with Ansel Elbert as Tony, who has been getting mediocre reviews for his lack of "soul". Ansel Elbert was hot! Elbert was singing tenor, sweet, clear and very emotional singing from his heart. What a concept.

It's not a common occurrence for a young person to sing so innocently these days, about true love, and Elbert, with his pouty lips and lanky working class presentation was so much fun to watch! Nobody believes in true love anymore. So it was a bit anachronistic to see this production based on the idea of true love. At the end when Maria cries her heart out over Tony laying in the street she is not only crying about the loss of her love. She also seems to be crying to the gang members looking on snd crying about their loss of innocence. In that regard she was crying for the audience, for me, Who cries about true love these days? True Love? It's actually counterrevolutionary.

I saw both the stage version live and the 1961 movie in the past, and even though I always loved the music and dance numbers, I was never really sold or engaged by the storytelling. I would go as far as saying that the story almost bored me on both the movie and stage musical.

This adaptation from Spielberg however manages to turn the characters into real people, the situations get higher stakes, the emotion is palpable. The quality of the songs and musical numbers are impressive, but they always were, you can't do West Side Story without it. But those numbers are greatly enhanced by a really dynamic direction from Spielberg. A direction, that stays masterful throughout and that is really working with the score of the movie.

The acting is so much more real that the 61 movie, Ariana DeBose is simply incredible at both singing and dancing, but her acting chops are really shining here. She carried the movie for me, even though to be fair, all the cast did a great job.

The focus on giving an emotional story and emotional performances from the actors was the way to go, and it is what makes this adaptation a great one. I cried so much (mostly thanks to DeBose and Moreno's performances) throughout the second part of the movie, while I had never shed one tear on the stage musical nor the 61 movie that never managed to move me.

Overall this new adaptation is clearly a love letter to the source material, not trying to reinvent what was already working, but enhancing what wasn't to make it a movie that can move people from our generations.

I was hesitant to go after hearing some negative reviews and stories of disapppointing box office after release.

But he music treatmeant of Bernstein's score, the choreography, the cast, were reallyjust excellent. Tony and Maria have more chemistry and talent than the originals (movie version), and I was blown away by the "I Want to Be in America" street scene. Not woke, not lame. See it.