Throughout September I will be raiding my collection of favourite movies to review one a day, with a focus on overlooked and underappreciated films.
Where to find it: Disney+
Length: 156 minutes
Synopsis: … it’s West Side Story
Recommendation rating: 5/5
What I like about it: spectacular, reverent, beautiful
What I don’t like about it: Ansel Elgort, too much lens flare, a touch too long
Review:
The most fun I’ve ever had watching a Spielberg movie, this isn’t so much a remake of the sixties movie as a re-adaptation of the original play and it’s such a huge improvement. The beautiful Bernstein score is turned up in this version, the star of the show over Sondheim’s often juvenile lyrics. Spielberg uses his gift for dynamic camera work and visual flair, the period recreation looks perfect and the Technicolor effects are charming. My only negative opinion of the direction is that he used to use lens flare to wonderful effect (E.T., Close Encounters) and then J.J. Abrams cribbed it without knowing how to use it, drowning every scene in digitally-enhanced lens flare and his hero seems to have stooped to the same level.
Ansel Elgort, the token name in this movie, puts in a lot of effort and his dancing is very good but his singing is less so and he’s out of his depth in this cast of legitimate triple threats. It drags in the third act but I liked the finish. If you can tolerate musicals at all, see this one. It bombed at the pandemic-affected box office but it’s growing an appreciative audience on streaming.
Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence, racism