Film: West Side Story

 

GENRE: Musical, Drama
RATING: PG-13 for strong violence and thematic content
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 36 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver, Divergent, Fault in Our Stars)
Ariana DeBose (Prom, Hamilton); Rachel Zegler (newcomer)
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Schindler’s List, Colour Purple)
WRITER: Tony Kushner (Lincoln, Munich, Angels in America)
PLOT: A Romeo & Juliet story but with New York street gangs the Sharks and the Jets.   

FULL DISCLOSURE: Not my favourite musical – I like ½ the songs.  

STORY STUFF: Kushner does a great job adapting the 1957 musical. There are obvious connections to the division found in America today, but not much had to be altered, unfortunately. There is still racism, fear of cops, class warfare, street violence, etc. A noticeable departure is having Doc replaced by Rita Moreno’s Valentina, as his widowed Puerto Rican wife. I enjoyed the nod to the Oscar winning film (Moreno played Anita and is a producer on this film) and I thought it added a new layer to the adult advice for Tony. In fact, what I really appreciated was the added backstory given to Tony and Bernardo in particular. Like the original musical, I find it goes a little long and the love story drags for me.

ACTING STUFF: I’m not usually a fan of Elgort or Tony, for that matter, but I found myself enjoying his portrayal and singing voice. Zegler is captivating as Maria, as is DeBose as Anita. These women bring powerhouse performances, vocals and choreography. I am a big fan Mike Faist, who I saw play Connor in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway, so I loved his take on Riff. It was odd for me to see David Alvarez as Bernardo after seeing him as such a weak character on American Rust, but he did a fantastic job. I’ll admit that I was not a fan of Brian d’Arcy James as Officer Krupke. James is a big Broadway actor and has done some great film and TV roles but his Krupke was too comical and not enough of a threat for me to take seriously like I have in the past.

ARTISTIC STUFF: It must be difficult to try and top a record-breaking Oscar winning musical, but Spielberg goes all out for his first crack at the genre. I love his interpretations and how rich he makes this movie in theme, setting and drama. New York comes alive as the backdrop for great musical numbers and scenes. I absolutely loved using Gimble’s department store for “I Feel Pretty”. The choreography throughout is sharp and reminiscent of the original film and musical but with some great changes; I also loved the moves of “Cool” and “America”. The staging of the balcony scene was incredible with great use of the fire escape. The camera movement is epic as it sweeps through the slums. The lighting is phenomenal with its use of shadows and back lighting. This film is artistically superb and Spielberg should be proud of his accomplishment.

VERDICT: Four and half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You like West Side Story or have never seen it before.
UPCOMING REVIEW: Spider-Man: No Way Home