West Side Story
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I like Ansel Elgort.
And I think it's super cool that Rita Moreno is in it. But I guess, Spielberg couldn't make the movie without her.
The only movie version of a musical I've ever liked was Hamilton. There's always something missing when stage productions are filmed.
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I saw the London stage show of Les Miz on video and then saw the movie. I liked them both. The movie was well done, I thought, in that it retained a lot of the look of a stage play. They could have ruined it by moving away from that. I'm glad they didn't.
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I assume Steven Spielberg’s $100 million remake of West Side Story isn’t being advertised quite as heavily in your neighborhood, but on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where I live, you can scarcely take a breath without being hit with advertising for the movie. 20th Century Studios/Disney treated this as an event movie, it had the weekend all to itself, it had considerable critical acclaim/hype and some of the target demographic (the theater community, extending out to everyone who ever performed in the show in high school) was intensely interested.
Unfortunately, the movie also suffers from having no stars (sorry, Ansel Elgort, but you make Timothée Chalamet look like Marlon Brando) and it’s based on a property that may be beloved by people over 50 but is, I suspect, totally unknown to those under 40. People over 50 don’t go to the movies. The single comment I most often hear from people when I tell them I’m a film critic is, “Oh, I haven’t been to the movies in years.” TV is where it’s at these days. West Side Story is on track to gross $10.2 million in North America on its opening weekend — less than the $11.5 million earned by In the Heights in June, even though In the Heights is a little-known property and it debuted on HBO Max the same day. Certainly, the public sense that the pandemic was over in June provided a boost and the reverse is true six months later.
West Side Story is, despite the terrific songs and attempts to update it, still an extremely dated property — corny, maudlin, contrived, phony. I saw it in a huge theater full of enthusiastic fans, and even there reaction was muted. It just isn’t that great. Word of mouth is not going to help this movie earn out.
It’s not really fair to call the movie a flop yet, though; its target audience of women over 25 is, famously, distracted by holiday-season activities, which is why movies like this tend to be released on Christmas Day rather than in early December. People have to see something Christmas Day and Christmas week (if they’re not too scared to go back to the movies), so it should keep drawing interest through the new year. However, it can’t expect much of a boost in January from the Golden Globes, which are not being broadcast by NBC this year due to a scandal, and it also won’t get much of a boost from the Oscar nominations because, as I’ve been writing for several years, the Oscars no longer matter to the average person. The Academy Awards went woke and have, culturally, gone broke. When you’re an awards-granting body and you stop giving out statuettes based solely on merit, people notice. Then they stop paying attention. The Oscars are actually even more corrupted by political correctness than the Golden Globes are by being lavished with goodies.
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My daughter is seeing it tonight. On imax.
To call it a dated property is to deny the show’s groundbreaking legacy and style. If this movie serves to open a couple more generations’ eyes to it it will be successful. You might as well call La Boheme dated.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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My daughter is seeing it tonight. On imax.
To call it a dated property is to deny the show’s groundbreaking legacy and style. If this movie serves to open a couple more generations’ eyes to it it will be successful. You might as well call La Boheme dated.
@mik said in West Side Story:
My daughter is seeing it tonight. On imax.
I'll be interested to hear her thoughts. She has a different eye than the rest of us, to be sure.
You might as well call La Boheme dated
I saw another column about the movie is a cheesy throwback. Yeah, great tunes, but the story and the setting? C'mon, man!
Now, that's not to say I agree with that, at all. I just find it fascinating how one of the masterpieces of American musical theater is getting sort of panned, almost 70 years after its debut.
What next, Oklahoma?
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The main thing I appreciate about West Side Story is that "Maria" is my go to memory aid for what a tritone sounds like.
@klaus said in West Side Story:
The main thing I appreciate about West Side Story is that "Maria" is my go to memory aid for what a tritone sounds like.
Yep… Was even taught that in ear training in college…
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The local newspaper critic loved it.
He loved Spielberg, he loved the music, he loved the changes that Spielberg made from the original.
He couldn’t say enough good things about it.
@copper said in West Side Story:
The local newspaper critic loved it.
He loved Spielberg, he loved the music, he loved the changes that Spielberg made from the original.
He couldn’t say enough good things about it.Good.
I saw a live production about 5 years ago that was great. Mrs. George didn't like it because...well it doesn't have a happy ending, LOL.
She's never read R&J.
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@copper said in West Side Story:
The local newspaper critic loved it.
He loved Spielberg, he loved the music, he loved the changes that Spielberg made from the original.
He couldn’t say enough good things about it.Good.
I saw a live production about 5 years ago that was great. Mrs. George didn't like it because...well it doesn't have a happy ending, LOL.
She's never read R&J.
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I would like to see it. I really like musicals, but have never see the original West Side Story
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Disney has made several movies where the young couple's families don't approve.
But they also make a lot of movies where the parents are killed and the heroes are orphaned. So there is no family left to disapprove.
I can't think of one where the young couple doesn't make it to the happy ending.
Then I just found this:
Disney’s 20th Century Studios has picked up a script for a new comedy based on “Romeo & Juliet”. Deadline is reporting that Kaitlyn Dever is attached to star in the film and Karen Maine has been tapped to direct the film.
A comedy based on R&J?
https://whatsondisneyplus.com/20th-century-developing-revisionist-romeo-juliet-film-rosaline/
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@george-k said in West Side Story:
She's never read R&J.
Maybe Disney should make a feature length R&J animation and give it a Disney signature happy ending.
@axtremus said in West Side Story:
@george-k said in West Side Story:
She's never read R&J.
Maybe Disney should make a feature length R&J animation and give it a Disney signature happy ending.
A space battle wouldn't hurt, either. Or maybe a massive shark or a bloke with a whip. Anything to take my mind off all the bloody singing.
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I watched Spielberg’s “West Side Story” (2021).
Expertly crafted, expertly produced? Yes.
Need to watch it on a big screen? No.
Need to watch it now? No.
Better audio and better video than the 1961 movie? Yes, the technology has had 60 years to improve, afterall.
Better music/dance performances than the 1961 movie? Not obvious that they are.
The set designs, in many slum scenes, look more like “stage” than “movie.” Probably deliberate because one has got to believe that Spielberg can create stupendously realistic-looking movie sets if he really wants to.This is a “musical” after all, so let’s talk about the music and dance performances. They are very well executed, really. Not obviously better than 1961, but very good nonetheless. Really like the energy of the many dance numbers. Ariana DeBose/Anita delivered knockout performances. Singing is good too, though I kept hoping that when Rachel Segler/Maria breaks into soprano that she would retain more of the Puerto Rican accent that’s supposed to be native for the character.
No need to rush to the movie theater to watch it, waiting for it to become available on streaming services and watching on a tablet should be just fine. All in all, an enjoyable movie.
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Poor box office performance:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/26/west-side-story-is-officially-a-box-office-bomb.html -
As I said, not enough explosions
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