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West Side Story review: Steven Spielberg pulls off the near-impossible in glowing remake
Breeze it, buzz it, easy does it.

By Leah Greenblatt

In a world where Batman seems to reboot biannually and even Space Jam gets a sequel, it helps to know that some things are still sacred. Like West Side Story, the 1957 stage musical whose definitive 1961 movie version has remained rightfully untouched for 60 years (at least on screen). The EGOT slurry of names brave enough to take it on in 2021 — Steven Spielberg directs, Tony Kushner penned the script, and Tony winner Justin Peck has tweaked the original Jerome Robbins choreography — may not be a match for the 20th-century icons who created it, but who is? More importantly, they're wise enough to stay largely faithful to Arthur Laurents' book, Leonard Bernstein's music, and Stephen Sondheim's sublime lyrics, with just a few well-gauged updates.
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Steven Spielberg doesn't disappoint with his vibrant, revamped 'West Side Story'

Brian Truitt
USA TODAY

Steven Spielberg worked wonders with a shark before, and he makes magic with a bunch of Sharks and some Jets, too.

For the first time, the Oscar-winning director puts his stamp on a movie musical. And he doesn’t disappoint – even when taking on an influential all-timer like “West Side Story” (★★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Dec. 10). With outstanding performances from newcomer Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose, Spielberg’s take doesn't stray too far from the original 1957 “Romeo & Juliet”-inspired Broadway musical or the 1961 best picture winning-film, but is rather a more authentic, dynamic and thoughtful revamp.
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West Side Story Review: Steven Spielberg's Big, Vibrant Take On The Classic Musical Is One Of His Best Films


BY CHRIS EVANGELISTA

The camera pans across dusty, rubble-strewn ruins, the bent bars of fire escapes littered everywhere, stacked on top of each other like twisted limbs. It looks like a bomb went off here; like we're witnessing the end of the world. And then we see a sign: New York City Housing Authority Slum Clearance. Cranes, and bulldozers, and wrecking balls dot the landscape. One day, this will all be Lincoln Center. For now, it's the turf of the Jets and the Sharks. And that turf is shrinking. No matter — the gangs are ready to go to war; ready to brawl over a series of blocks that won't even exist in a few years. When all is said and done, this slum clearance will displace more than 7,000 lower-class families. 
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‘West Side Story’ Review: Steven Spielberg Celebrates and Updates an American Classic
Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner clearly respect what’s come before, but they’re not afraid to tinker with it, and the results are electrifying

Alonso Duralde

Director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner neither demolish nor copy the classic 1961 musical “West Side Story”: They give the venerable property a new paint job, secure a few walls, move a few windows and ultimately build their own edifice from the legendary Broadway musical, one that will likely satisfy the original’s admirers and detractors alike while also welcoming newcomers to the material.
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Review: Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story Is a Whirring Rush of Euphoric Energy
This West Side Story, though, is at its best when it zooms in and settles down into character study.

By Dan Rubins

There’s a thin line between destruction and reconstruction in Stephen Spielberg’s West Side Story. Much of the film finds two rival gangs, the Sharks and the Jets, scrambling across a New York City demolition zone of crumbled buildings and jagged debris that would become Lincoln Center. The site may be the future of a gentrified, West Side arts capital, but it’s also, for now, a quasi-apocalyptic wasteland. “There’s dust on everything,” says Riff (Mike Faist), the half-crazed leader of the Jets, surveying the basement storeroom that his friend Tony’s (Ansel Elgort) been living in, but it’s a description—even a philosophy—that could apply to much of Spielberg’s vision for the world these gangs fight for and fight over.
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