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West Side Story Movie Review

West Side Story is a 2021 musical romance film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose. It’s a rather unnecessary, though very well crafted remake.

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“If you go with him, no one will forgive you“

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Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy. This film is a based on a famous musical that was adapted already in 1961 to an iconic movie that garnered multiple Oscars. Thus, many were skeptical if we even needed a remake, and after seeing the movie, I have to say that we still did not need this adaptation. It’s modernized for sure and it is livelier, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same story told once again.

Nothing here is at a big fresh or exciting in terms of the characters and plot. It’s a predictable Romeo and Juliet story that we’ve seen before and the changes made to the source material are only slight, though admirable modern. The introduction of a transgender supporting character was interesting and the movie’s energy definitely transcends the original, but other than that the plot just goes through the motions.

In terms of the performers, you get the same as we got before. The main couple is still your boring romantic central pair. They are the weakest parts of a great ensemble cast. That is not to say that Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler are bad. Not at all. They are both very good, but simply these characters remain as one-note and uninteresting as they were before.

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But other supporting players got more to do and they are much more memorable as a result. The aforementioned trans character was pretty good, Rita Moreno playing now a different character than she did before was also excellent and the highlight has to be Ariana DeBose as Anita. She is by far the best part of the movie acting-wise as she delivered such an emotionally charged performance that was rightfully recognized by the Academy.

But this is still West Side Story, which means a lot of cute twinks singing around town and dancing like crazy. And that in a nutshell has always been my biggest problem with this material. How is this supposed to be taken seriously? And this question is coming from a big musical fan, mind you. But simply watching these young, lanky guys dance makes the crime drama elements very difficult to buy. This movie did get more dangerous at times, but it still needed more darkness and more edge in order to take it seriously.

The movie’s a technical accomplishment that was embraced by Hollywood and rightfully so. The cinematography is strikingly good, the dance choreography is simply outstanding and a lot of the musical numbers are actually improvements upon the previous versions seen in 1961 because they are livelier and much more modern in execution. But I still personally do not care all that much for this soundtrack, thus my love for the original was never particularly high. The directing from Spielberg is surprisingly confident given that this is the first musical in his career, but this story fits his style and he did excel executing it. I just wish that he included more original story elements.

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