West Side Story is a fine musical drama, directed beautifully by Steven Spielberg. The film gives a déjà vu of La La Land, as it was the most memorable musical from Hollywood in recent times, and also of the film Josh, due to the street gang connection (Josh is said to be inspired from the old West Side Story film). The love story and the track of Ariana DeBose are lovely and the music is obviously a major USP. I had not seen the 1957 film and hence, I was mesmerized by the songs, especially ‘Maria’, ‘America’, ‘Something’s Coming’, ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’ and ‘Tonight’. However, the film is too long at 157 minutes. A few songs are wrongly placed or shouldn’t have been there at all. And the major downside is the absence of English subtitles for Spanish dialogues. Speaking of performances, Ansel Elgort, as expected, excels in yet another all-out romantic role after The Fault In Our Stars. Rachel Zegler is stunning and gives such a fine performance that it’s difficult to believe that this is her debut. Ariana DeBose dances like a dream and delivers what seems to be a sure-shot Oscar worthy performance. David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Josh Andrés Rivera, Rita Moreno and others do well. All in all, West Side Story is a great effort and if you enjoy musicals or crave for some old-world classic kind of a film, do watch this flick!
My rating – *** ½ out of 5!