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Movie of the Week #5 - West Side Story (2021)
This is the fifth and last movie we discuss of Academy Award Winners. Ariana DeBose won for Best Supporting Actress. It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design.
Did the movie deserve its nominations and awards? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.
Voting for December will come up in a few days.
I saw this in theaters back in 2021, apparently one of the few people to do so. I fell in love with it, immediately gave it a 5/5 on letterboxd. I didn't declare it my favorite movie of 2021 until subsequent re-watches throughout 2022.
Until I saw Oppenheimer this was my favorite movie of the 2020s. It's my favorite Spielberg, it might be my favorite musical as well. I was familiar with the original, I had watched that back in 2018, but I think this adaptation is way better. It feels more alive, the dance sequences are more complex, and the cinematography is beyond gorgeous. There are so many incredible shots in this (I mean the puddle shot).
I think it is a travesty that this did not end up with more nominations (thanks to Disney now being 20th Century's owner and being terrible awards campaigners). At the very least this deserved a nomination in Film Editing over tick, tick... BOOM! (which I do like), but it's so weird that that's the musical that got in with the editing branch and not this one. EDIT: Would you guys also believe me if I said this almost lost out on a Cinematography nomination. Belfast took it's spot at ASC and No Time To Die at BAFTA.
I fell in love with Rachel Zegler in this. It's hard to believe she was 18 years old when Spielberg cast her. She has a movie star quality in this and her voice is really just incredible. I think it's a real shame that she was not nominated for this, even statistically speaking she should have been nominated since she won both the NBR Lead Actress award and the Golden Globe for Musical or Comedy. She was my personal winner this year, and I don't think any of the performances that were actually nominated came close to her in this movie.
I also like Ansel Elgort in this. He was the most criticized thing about this movie when it came out. I don't believe that had anything to do with his actual performance and was more about his MeToo scandals that had popped up a year earlier. I think he's great in this. I think he has a good voice. I think he has good chemistry with Zegler even when they first meet and they're snapping their fingers. If it were not for his MeToo scandal I think this would have been the beginning of him being taken more seriously as an actor rather than as just a pretty boy.
I do believe that this is the movie that people will look back on and say should have won Best Picture. Not just because CODA is such a weak winner, but because the high brow choice of the time, The Power of the Dog, has not had a long shelf life. Nobody really talks about it anymore. If Power of the Dog had won Picture, it would have had the reputation of The Hurt Locker. A movie that was wildly praised by critics at the time but which the praise for now seems overblown. And I think West Side Story would be the Inglorious Basterds in this scenario where most people now say it should have won instead.
At the very least I am glad that this got one win, with Ariana DeBose winning Supporting Actress. That's a win that people complained about at the time because "she's not doing anything special" but that dancing is ridiculous.
If it were up to me this would have swept everything.
I feel kind of bad by having to preface a review with "I am not really into this type of thing", but these movie of the week discussions is also about challenging yourself outside your comfort zone. And this musical really was somewhat of a struggle to get through. I am not generally into musicals, though I have enjoyed watching a few live and I think Moulin Rouge is a pretty good movie musical. But this did very little for me. I can appreciate the talent, the production value and the cinematography, but I can barely remember any of the songs and the whole Bernstein jazz-like score is not really my thing. It is way too long for the rather small story. Also, why I am not familiar with the original, it has too much of a feel of being a "love letter remake" - I could be totally wrong here though not having seen the original. It is still set in the 50s. If you want to remake it in 2021, why not make something new and set it in the present day? I am sure Spielberg has his reasons for this, but they elude me at least.
There was a Broadway revival right before the pandemic broke out, that had a modern day West Side Story. Where Latinos took over the role of the Irish/italians and Black people took over the role of Latinos. That’s something that people said Spielberg should have done.