West Side Story

Movie: West Side Story

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design

How I watched: Disney+

When I fell asleep: I watched it early

When it had me: Look at their skin!

When it lost me: Main Actors

What I have to say:

Oh, dear and magical gods of film, this movie is SO beautiful! I was absolutely entranced by the first few minutes of staring at gorgeous color, heightened lighting and velvety luminosity! Just look at their skin! It sparkles and has a sheen with a tangible texture. Are they vampires from Twilight? It looks real in a way that real life never actually looks. The shine coming off of the classic cars makes them look like alien technology come to earth. Why have my eyes never perceived light as beautiful as this! I mean, it really excited me and freaked me out.

For a second, I thought that the brilliant Spielberg had finally found a way to film so that it looks like 35 mm film but BETTER and I was so excited! But no, it turns out it IS actually shot on 35 mm film and then I felt sad. Because no other movie this year looks this fantastic and we are slowly losing the art of it and the luxury of feasting our eyes on it. If you are not a fan of musicals, pull up the movie, fast forward to the 'I Want to Be in America' song number and just watch that while focusing on their skin. Let it BLOW your mind just for the fun of it. And then turn it off, because the movie is not that great.

Whoa! Sorry for that sucker punch! I'm not a fan of West Side Story to begin with (which is crazy because I'm a fool for its source material, Romeo and Juliet. I think I love the language which doesn't carry over.) While Ariana DeBose (nominated) is brimming with charm and screen presence, neither of the main characters can even come close to competing. I just kept losing interest when they were on the screen. I'd have to wait for another lighting cue to light up my brain.

Ansel Elgort as Tony is cold, bland and looming. He looks at Maria like she is a country that he wants to colonize for Britain (even though he is Polish.) It never looked like a real connection. We don't look at love stories the same way that we once did and its impossible to embrace Maria's naive and instantaneous attachment to Tony. My kids were like, "What the hell is going on here?"

Rita Moreno is wonderful as a new character, Valentina, that helps Tony. The single strongest choice I saw in the film was to have her sing the ballad Somewhere. It ceases to be a personal song about two people that want to disappear together for their own romance and makes it a song about a community. Perhaps she is looking for a place for Puerto Ricans to live peacefully, or all lovers, or all the humans that are sick of the way we squabble over race, territory and power. I found it to be a very moving adjustment. I bought the song coming from her place of generational wisdom in a way that I never have before.

If you love this story, or you love golden age musicals, you will adore this completely. It was not in my wheel house to begin with but I personally would just give Janusz the Oscar now because I have never felt so swept away by the way the light struck the film.