Movie Review: West Side Story Is One of The Best Films of 2021
Watching West Side Story, admittedly, I was hesitant. It is one of my favorite films, and, historically, can feel like a crux in Puerto Rican/ Latino representation. The film is a gorgeous classic with some issues. Hence, when you come from a community so endangered and under-represented, you can teeter between blind love and over-protection over how you are seen. I loved West Side Story, the original, and I loved Spielberg’s remake, in part, because it helps to amend some of the original’s problem while also reminding viewers that this is a Shakespearean romance.
West Side Story is based off of Romeo and Juliet, and Maria (Rachel Zegler) and Tony (Ansel Elgort) embody young love for it naive exuberance. Making her big screen debut, in her first film, it is hard not to walk away VERY impressed by Zegler. The fierce Colombiana imbues Maria as a wide-eyed innocent; excited to embrace her new life, while, simultaneously, frustrated by the racism and social “rules” of being Puerto Rican in America: treated as foreign while being a territory under foreign rule. In essence, when someone else thinks they own you, what does it mean to carve out your own space in their “territory” because they took your home?
Enter The Jets, which also get their own emotional, more humane “makeover.” If there is one thing that both enamors and frustrates musical-lovers is how the theater world can both mystify and over-simplify the human experience. West Side Story, like Romeo and Juliet, was about two rival gangs: each unable to move up in the world, for varying reasons, and thus determined to own “ the spot” they had, while feeling they had nothing. This is the odd paradox that makes Mike Faist’s Tony and David Alvarez’s Bernardo PHENOMENAL. Their performances are riveting and juxtaposed because they are two sides of the same, hopeless coin.
You honor a classic by believing in yourself enough to reimagine it, and Steven Spielberg has proven he has imagination. With Tony Kushner’s writing, I was genuinely shocked by the re-arrangements of songs, additional scenes, and new approach to the classic’s choreography, which, admittedly, I wished had been more kept. Yet, the level of “soul” Spielberg and gave each character was so moving because it made me reanalyze and relearn a theme I had previously ignored from both the original film and Romeo and Juliet. To quote Elgort’s Tony, “They fight so hard to stay in place because they don’t believe there is anywhere else for them.” That line hit me like a church bell because it approaches a nuance to oppression that is often ignored or grazed by….. it is depressing to be oppressed.
The Jets are poor, Polish kids that even Sergeant Krupke (Brian d’Arcy James) acknowledges come from broken homes of addiction and disappointment. Meanwhile, the Sharks left the home the loved due to a systemic, historical reaping of its resources, land, and avid attempts to extinct its peoples. In essence, they loved a home that, historically, has been stuck in the eye of a colonialist hurricane for over the past 500 years. It was nice to see a West Side Story that, at least, acknowledged Puerto Ricans DO NOT HATE PUERTO RICO, they hate how much they have to suffer for being Puerto Rican. Enter my adoration for my 3 FAVE characters: Rita Moreno’s Valentina, Ariana DeBose’s Anita, and …. yes….. Josh Andrés Rivera’s Chino.
Rita Moreno- As Doc’s widow, Rita Moreno is getting A LOT of Oscar Buzz because she feels so solid amidst the chaos of wicked prejudice and eternal love; two forces that cannot stop meeting in front of her store. Hence, you cry at her heartbreakingly, hopeful rendition of “Somewhere.” She sings the song like a prayer for all of us that really would like to live in a peaceful world.
Ariana Debose- Anita is NOT AN EASY ROLE TO TAKE UP! This character became legendary thanks to Rita Moreno, and, in the minds of a lot of Latinas, she can embody our essence more than even Maria: the lead. DeBose steals scenes by not emulating Moreno’s rendition as much as honoring the core humanity she gave this character. Anita is deeply loving, resilient, promising, and determined: all things DeBose can flash in just her warm smile.
Chino- I remember my friend being mad that he had to play Chino. It was the “character” every Latino avoided when West Side Story was done in highschool, in part, because he was portrayed as a shadowy evil: no depth. Josh Andrés Rivera gives such a sweet, sad lostness to this character that I feel vindicated for telling my buddy, “There is more to Chino then meets the eye.” Like most of the characters across the screen, especially The Sharks, Chino is frustrated at a world that cannot let us BE, and the death of his best friend spirals him into a false and, eventually, fatal perspective that revenge can be righteous. Rivera totally embodies the times any Latino/ Puerto Rican or even victim of racism simply did not want to turn the other cheek, even if they always did and were deemed “too good” to respond badly. Sometimes, it is not easy to stop yourself from returning hate with hate.
Also, did I mention I love Bernardo because I am about to get an I LOVE David Alvarez T-Shirt, and I am not ashamed.
Visually stunning and, virtuously, more rectifying, West Side Story 2021 becomes a classic in its own right. While there will be varying opinions on how well it represents Puerto Ricans and Latinos, I understand. Again, as an under-represented and severely oppressed community, we do have the right to not only fight for a seat at the table but also decide what we want to eat. Yet, I genuinely fell in love with the overall romance of the film. West Side Story, like Romeo and Juliet, lives on throughout the decades because it is about love and how society’s hatefulness may crush it but it cannot extinguish it.
