Latrice Price

West Side Story. One of my all time favorite movies. The dancing, the acting and the singing. The emotion, a rollercoaster of them! I’ve watched the original movie so many times, since childhood, I was skeptical about a remake. The coming attractions gave me hope! Then I saw the movie. The audience was quiet and very intense. And it remained that way afterward! For me, I found this version to be less than what I expected. I understand this is the 2021 version and, yes, NY is its backdrop. But what really hurt with me is the lack of skill in the dancing compared to the original. The original dancers moved like ballet dancers with grit and grime all rolled up into one. They were true triple threats! The moving around of the songs and the putting them in places where it just made no sense. In the original, Tony had a look where he could pass for a Hispanic guy. The actor who played Riff…Good…but..man I wish he had a little more grit like the original. I saw him struggle to climb up some rocks in one scene! Riff’s character was so passionate and he loved his friend, Tony. I dont remember them fighting like that. I didn’t get that whole scene. The song used for that scene…Why on earth was it used in a scene between Riff and Tony???? Man I was steaming in my seat!! The scene between Tony and Maria at the dance…That was a pivotal and artistic scene! And I thought we would see all the dancers in a dreamlike sequence dancing in the shadows like it should have been! I thought Steven Spielberg would do his thing as the master of special effects! Instead, he puts them behind the bleachers!!! And why was Tony made an ex-con? I dont get this version. And I did feel a little lost when no subtitles for the added spanish(I do love the language and want to learn it actually) in so many scenes. It’s such a beautiful language, we want to understand what they are saying too! The foul language was a surprise but that was expected with a remake i guess. Anyway, Maria, Chino, Anita and Bernardo were my favorite characters. Even though Chino was given some dance moves on the dance floor that looked odd because he was supposed to be just her sidekick (in her mind). They did nothing like that in the original. The addition of characters that had nothing to do with the original didn’t make any sense to me. Man I was wanting to love it, but, as a dancer and lover of entertainment from back in the day, It was hard to embrace…