In the decades since it first appeared on Broadway in 1957, the Romeo and Juliet-inspired story of two warring New York street gangs has generated more than its share of criticism, especially over the writing and the casting of its Puerto Rican characters.
She also gives a poignant performance in the new role of Valentina, the widow of Doc, the drugstore owner.
We see the working-class neighborhood of San Juan Hill, home to mostly Black and Latino residents, being demolished to make way for new developments like Lincoln Center.
They include David Alvarez as Bernardo, the brash leader of the Sharks, and Ariana DeBose as his girlfriend, Anita.
The story hasn’t changed: María falls into an ill-fated romance with Tony, a former member of the Jets, played by Ansel Elgort.
What’s remarkable about this and the other numbers is how brilliantly Spielberg directs them.
And when Anita and Bernardo sing “America,” their rousing song about the pleasures and perils of assimilation, the scene builds from a domestic squabble to a joyous party in the streets, which Spielberg shoots in a vibrant whirl of color and movement.
Speaking of Tony’s friends: As Riff, the leader of the Jets, Mike Faist gives one of the movie’s standout performances.
The reason the movie works so well stems, I think, from a curious paradox: This West Side Story may be grittier and more realistic than the original movie, but it also feels more thrillingly old-fashioned than anything a Hollywood studio has released in ages.
By the end, I wasn’t moved so much by Tony and María’s sweet, somewhat drippy romance or the fatalistic drama between the Jets and the Sharks.