Movie Review : West Side Story (2021)
Steven Spielberg has finally made it. He became advanced. For almost two decades, the iconic American director made ridiculous movie over ridiculous movie seemingly for validation alone. Films like War Horse and The Post have no reason whatsoever to exist, except winning the Oscar for Best Picture and none of them did. So Spielberg just said "fuck it" and embraced his inner weirdo. It’s the only reason I can explain why he directed a remake of classic musical West Side Story. Steven Spielberg MUST’VE advanced.
In case musicals aren’t your thing: West Side Story tells the tale of two teenage street gangs: the Jets (who are Polish) and the Sharks (who are Puerto Rican). They are warring over territory in a piece of shit mid-century New York neighbourhood, which consists in fist fighting and singing real catchy songs until Jet O.G Tony (a surprising Ansel Elgort) and Shark débutante Maria (Rachel Zegler) fall hopelessly in love. Then everything becomes way, WAY worse. That’s what happens when you can’t keep it in your pants.
The Value of Being Old
Steven Spielberg is an old man. But West Side Story is almost as old as he is, which is a good thing in the context of this remake. When you bring up something from the past to a new audience, it kind of belong to you. You’re free to add as much glitter and pizzaz to the original material, no one will give a shit and Spielberg splurged in glitter and pizzaz. Because people who experience YOUR version of the movie are the ones that matter. Not the old farts who saw the original in theatre. They’re mostly dead anyway.
It wouldn’t work for a movie who's twenty or thirty years old, but it works for a movie in its sixties. It was made in a different world.
So, West Side Story is kind of fun because it is completely divorced from a) realism and b) any desire to pay tribute to the original material whatsoever. It’s basically Romeo & Juliette with songs and twirls and horny New York kids. The scene where Tony and Maria first meet behind the bleachers at the gym is a good example of why it works It is soaked in colourful, aggressive and unrealistic lighting that is feels like an exaggerated memory. It feels like you feel when you’re falling in love. Look at this:
Ain’t that fucking sweet and appropriately corny?
Getting older fucking sucks for a thousand reasons, but it’s great for one thing: you can relive the powerful moments from your youth and share them with the world with no regard whatsoever for how it actually happened. West Side Story never feels like a story straightforwardly delivered to you, but an amped up recollection from someone who loves the original way too much and it is in the best possible way. It’s so visually and emotionally over the top that it’ll bring back you own sleazy teenage memories.
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Being Ansel Elgort
One strength of West Side Story is that it’s insanely well cast with young, energetic actor who give a shit about about their performance. A lot of bitter people online claimed Ariana DeBose only got the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress because she’s queer and it couldn’t any more wrong. She is so fucking fun and full of life in West Side Story that she actually blows main actress Rachel Zegler out of the water. She is by far the best new talent I’ve come across in recent years and she’s going to make it big.
Ansel Elgort is normally not a very good actor, but the James Dean, tragic ex-con part makes the most out of his limited range. He doesn’t have to talk much or show emotion (except in a specific moment), so he pulls off the emotionally confused young man vibe to near perfection. He feels like a man who would risk everyone’s life on a romantic whim. Now, he looks about 30 years older than Rachel Zegler because she is ridiculously tiny and young-looking, but they’re going hard enough to make you look past that.
*
I would’ve probably never watched West Side Story if I hadn’t been trapped on a plane for seven hours, but I did not regret my choice. This is a movie that shouldn’t exist in 2022 and that was made solely based on the fact that Steven Spielberg is a) old b) rich c) very good at his job and d) doesn’t give a fuck about anything except "the good old days" and it shows because it feels like a buried memory from a distant era. Fuck it, keep him on the bike. Let him make the movies he wants. He’s not hurting anyone.
