‘West Side Story’: The Positive and Negative Reactions

Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” just screened in New York and reactions are all over the place; From it’s better than the original to it’s clearly not. It’ll be interesting to see how reviews pan out for this one, which I’m set to watch on Thursday.

The below are 10 people who saw the film, whose tastes I actually trust or semi-trust — they usually don’t succumb to Twitter hyperbole reactions (maybe Goldberg does from time to time).

As for Ansel Elgort, I’ve noticed from the overall reactions that either he’s not mentioned or if he is then the tweet points out how miscast/terrible he was compared to the rest of the movie. Consider me very suspicious of this narrative.

The MVPs seem to be Rachel Zegler, Rita Moreno and Mike Faist, with the latter two more likely to be in Oscar contention than Zegler.

The AV Club’s Jesse Hassenger:

“I was hoping that WEST SIDE STORY (2021) would sate my decades-long desire for Spielberg to do a musical. Alas, it is so beautifully shot and staged, such an absolute schooling of the usual musical directors, that I fear I now want him to make two or three more.”

Slash Film’s Chris Evangelista:

“WEST SIDE STORY is *phenomenal.* Steven Spielberg has been talking about making a musical for almost his entire career, and this was worth the wait. This is top-tier Spielberg.”

Collider’s Matt Goldberg:

“I guess we’re allowed to tweet our thoughts about WEST SIDE STORY. I loved it. It feels like its own thing while retaining a classic vibe. The craftsmanship is incredible and makes me wish it hadn’t taken Spielberg this long to make a musical. Easily his best film since LINCOLN.”

Awards Daily’s Sasha Stone:

“West Side Story is an earthy, soulful masterpiece. Exploding with beauty, brimming with life. It is magnificent.”

The Playlist’s Jason Bailey:

“WEST SIDE STORY is extremely good, and Ansel Elgort is just terrible in it! Quite the conundrum!!”

The AV Club’s AA Dowd:

“Rather than reinvent WEST SIDE STORY, Spielberg deepens a few qualities while staying true to its timeless power, directing the hell out of one of Broadway's greatest shows. I will always love (and likely prefer) the '61 version, but this is an excellent staging.”

Little White Lies’ David Jenkins:

“Some immaculate bursts of craft, and Rita Moreno steals the show, but generally very blah on Spielberg’s pointless, starched, chemistry-free, Hipstamatic-filtered West Side Story - a pale shadow of the Wise version in every respect.”

The Globe and Mail’s Barry Hertz:

“WEST SIDE STORY: If it's not quite essential, it's still tremendously entertaining. Vivid, beautiful work from our greatest living American moviemaker. Invigorating choice to have subtitle-less Spanish comprise ~40% of dialogue. David Alvarez is the breakout, but everyone's aces.”

The Film School Reject’s Christopher Campbell:

“There is so much lens flare in this movie that it’s distracting. I completely missed Tony and Maria falling in love at first sight because of it. Or maybe they just had no chemistry. Or both.”

Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells:

“It’s not bad! Occasionally wonderful. I was in tears at times. The ending doesn’t quite get there, but the first two-thirds to three-quarters is definitely surprisingly good. Much better film than the Wise version. A much better script by Kushner.”

The Playlist’s Robert Daniels:

“A shocker: I didn’t dislike Spielberg’s #WestSideStory. It’s not a patch on the original (what is?). People’s skin are rendered way too pale. And the VFX is jarring. But Ariana DeBose and her evocative eyes were incredible. So were Rita Moreno and David Alvarez. Ansel? Eh.”