West Side Story 
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez
Raing: 3.5/5

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of a Broadway musical, the  1957 Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim/Arthur Laurents creation previously realized in a much loved Academy Award-sweeping 1961 Robert Wise film, does great credit to his genre-transcending versatility and film making genius. This new film follows the screenplay by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Tony Kushner, while exploring forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds.

In Steven Spielberg’s able hands we see a grittier, less stagey ‘West Side Story.’ The iconic helmer makes his interpretation more dynamic and soaked in feelings. It’s a “Romeo and Juliet” riff that makes you sing, dance and cry with equal abandon. Gang life is much more pronounced and vivid in this “West Side Story,” hostilities flare up with volatility that appears more threatening.