Movies & More reviewer John Gillispie shares his thoughts on “West Side Story,” which is directed by Steven Spielberg, rated PG-13 and available on DVD. The songs of “West Side
My favorite genre is the movie musical; my least favorite, the musical-theater-kid movie. Both Spielberg’s Story and last year’s other corny pretender, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, have arrived as quaint, todos-juntos representatives of the latter brand. Bright, high-pitched, and would-be weird, they come from a time when we weren’t shaken by a global pandemic that wiped out millions of the bottom and made billions for the top. Miranda had the audacity to state in a promotional podcast for In the Heights that he wanted to “transcend” (“progress beyond”) West Side Story by not making “yet another gangster movie.” Good for him.
“West Side Story” plays at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center this weekend and into next week. It is a terrific new version of the original. Some of Hollywood’s best of the best helped create this remake of the 1961, 10-time Oscarwinning musical. They include Steven Spielberg as director; Oscar-nominated, Pulitzer prizewinning playwright Tony Kushner as […]
The appearance of the new version is a much anticipated event. In the works for a number of years, Spielberg’s film was shot and edited in 2019, but its opening was delayed a year by the pandemic.