West Side Story

If I had one word to describe this movie... it would be colorful.

This is one of the prettiest movies you will see. I love this new vibe that Spielberg has been delivering in his most recent films. It seems that he almost created a new signature style late in his career.

The cast is magical.

Ansel's basement scene at the begining of the third act excites me to see the future his career.

Rachel Zegler, David Alvarez, and Mike Faist steal the screen. In fact the casting of Riff is incredible.

This story means a lot to me. I watched the original movie a lot as a kid, and I felt like it helped me appreciate great movies at a young age. In fact the original was the first movie that my grandfather ever saw in a theater.

So hear me when I say... whoever was in charge of the Officer Krupke musical number, that person is a genius.

It is so fresh and creative and fits so well within the story. It was def my highlight of the whole movie.

Lastly, I just wanna appreciate the risk here. West Side Story doesn't have a great ending, and it is supposed to tell a story while teaching a lesson. My appreciation is the lack of a lift at the end of the movie. With such a big budget, I was expecting the movie to try and lift out of the sad and dramatic ending, but the movie stuck to its guns and let us sit in that moment. It's a hard pill to swallow, but without it, the lesson we have been learning through the whole movie is ruined.