West Side Story (2021)

Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.

4.8 / 5

INCLUVIE SCORE

4.3 / 5

MOVIE SCORE

Representation

Latinx

LGBTQ

Women

Daleyna

December 27, 2021

5 / 5

INCLUVIE SCORE

4.5 / 5

MOVIE SCORE

‘West Side Story’ (2021) Improves on and Is Limited by the Original

Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021) is a visual masterpiece starring a talented and colorful cast with improved Latine representation from the original version. Although the film seeks to improve the source material—and in some ways, does so successfully—it is also limited by its predecessor. Spoilers ahead. Let’s get this out of the way first: the sexual assualt allegations against Ansel Elgort are a massive stain on this movie. The film had already wrapped in 2019 before the first allegation was made in 2020. I’m not sure what they could have done to fix this. Studios can’t feasibly scrap or refilm an entire movie they’ve spent millions of dollars making with such a large cast, even when the lead has allegations like this against them; just look at Death on the Nile.

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