West Side Story is a remake of the 1961 musical and this time Steven Spielberg is in the directors chair and this new version stars Ansel Elgort as Tony the former leader of the group called the Jets in 1950s New York who falls for a Puerto Rican girl named Maria (Rachel Zegler) which causes great tension between the Jets and a Puerto Rican group named the Sharks and when you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way from your first cigarette.
West Side Story is one of those movies that you just sit there watching in a cinema (and if you can do so I beg and urge you to watch this in a cinema on the big screen with a great sound system) and you think to yourself “There are movies and movie makers and then there is Mr Steven Spielberg” I mean this man is 75 years old and the direction in this movie feels as fresh and as vibrant and energetic as the direction of a man in the prime of his life, it is just amazing to watch a master of his craft like Spielberg just go to town.
I mean the staging of the musical numbers, the way that they and the film as a whole is edited by Michael Khan and Sarah Broshar, the cinematography by Januz Kaminski their just beautiful to watch unfold in front of you, the musical numbers burst with life and energy and have you captivated in your cinema seat and often I thought of another great movie musical 1978’s Grease in fact Mike Faist and his gang could’ve easily broken out into a rendition of Greased Lightning and I wouldn’t have complained not one iota.
Some of my favorite numbers were the first Jet song, America by Adriana DeBrose and the quartet version of Tonight and all of those numbers along with some of the wordless dance sequences were just amazing to watch and thankfully this movie is not edited to within an inch of the frame and you actually get to enjoy the dancing on screen and speaking of DeBrose and Faist they deserve serious awards recognition for their work they are that good in this movie and I sincerely hope I see more of them in the movies after this.
One last scene I want to highlight is the school dance scene where Tony first sees Maria and it is a great credit to Spielberg’s direction and framing and staging that it has that feeling of when you see that special someone or think of them and it feels like the whole room falls away and they captivate your thinking.
Now our two leads and here it’s a little bit of a mixed bag I’m sorry to say, Elgort is fine in this role and he proves himself well in the singing and dancing department but he looks a little too clean cut to be in this role and part of me kept wishing that someone like Tom Holland had played this role instead or more of a young John Travolta type someone that looks more like what the character of Tony is said to have done in his life.
Zegler meanwhile is a born star, she is very young but she holds her own very well and has a great singing voice and her chemistry with Elgort is pretty good and works just fine enough to carry that part of the film even if a lot of the time they feel overshadowed by Faist and DeBrose.
And so that was West Side Story which is a dynamic energetic musical by one of the great directors of all time and it has to be seen on the big screen but if your not comfortable in going back to theatres that’s okay I understand, 4 and a half out of 5.
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