WEST SIDE STORY: 4 STARS
The list of films Hollywood considers sacred and untouchable is a short one. Only a bugger for punishment would attempt a redo of 鈥淭he Godfather.鈥 And imagine the jeers that would accompany the announcement of a reimagined 鈥淐asablanca鈥 or 鈥淒o the Right Thing."
Until recently I would have put 鈥淲est Side Story,鈥 the classic 1961 musical that won 10 Academy Awards, in the top five of films on the 'no go' list. But just as that show riffed on 鈥淩omeo and Juliet,鈥 a classic if there ever was one, Steven Spielberg takes another look at a memorable movie the TCM crowd considers untouchable.
Set in 1950s New York City, the story of love at first sight is played out against a backdrop of the gentrification of the Upper West Side, a then blue-collar neighbourhood. Two gangs, the Puerto Rican Sharks and the Jets, the 鈥淟ast of the Can鈥檛 Make It Caucasians,鈥 run the streets as the NYC Department of Slum Clearance chop up their home turf. The only thing they have in common is a 鈥渨omb-to-tomb鈥 membership motto.
Into this comes Tony and Maria (Ansel Elgort and newcomer Rachel Zegler), star-crossed lovers whose infatuation causes friction between the gangs. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to start World War III,鈥 says Anita (Ariana DeBose).
Tony鈥檚 best friend Riff (Mike Faist) runs the nativist white Jets鈥斺淓verything is being taken over by people I don鈥檛 like,鈥 he sneers鈥攚hile Maria鈥檚 brother Bernardo (David Alvarez) leads the Sharks.
Tony is on parole for almost beating a boy to death in a rumble, but has turned over a new leaf. 鈥淚 want to unlike myself,鈥 he says, 鈥渂ecause I was headed to the sewer.鈥 He also puts to rest the notion that 鈥渙nce you鈥檙e a Jet, you鈥檙e a Jet all the way.鈥 He wants out of that life, but most of all, he wants Maria.
As Riff and Bernardo plan a rumble to viciously work out their differences, Maria begs Tony to put an end to the violence. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 pretend what we do didn鈥檛 cause this trouble,鈥 she says. Tony intervenes, but the situation quickly spirals out of control.
Steven Spielberg鈥檚 take on 鈥淲est Side Story鈥 feels rooted in the tradition of movie musicals, but vibrates with current themes. The social mindfulness that was revolutionary for musical theatre in the 1950s Broadway run is present and expanded on. Tony Kushner鈥檚 script offers context and backstories for underdeveloped characters and plays on hot button themes of racial animus, poverty, and violence.
Most of all, however, it鈥檚 about love.
It鈥檚 love that causes all the trouble but also gives the movie its beating heart. As the couple in question Elgort and Zegler are appealing, wide-eyed romantic figures. Zegler is a convincing swirl of determination and innocence, with a beautiful voice. Elgort can wrap his mouth around Stephen Sondheim鈥檚 lovely lyrics鈥"Maria, say it loud and there's music playing. Say it soft and it's almost like praying"鈥攂ut doesn鈥檛 shine as bright as some of his co-stars.
As Bernardo, Alvarez brings the menace, smooth charm, and athletic dance moves to steal his scenes. Faist also impresses as hardheaded gang leader Riff. DeBose gives a high stepping performance as Bernardo鈥檚 girlfriend Anita; a role that grows more poignant in the movie鈥檚 third act.
But it鈥檚 a returning cast member from the 1961 film who gives the movie its soul.
Rita Moreno won an Oscar for playing Anita in the original. Here she plays drug mart operator Valentina. Kushner expands the role, making the character the conscience of the neighbourhood. She is luminous in the part, and, in a major departure from the 1961 film, does a solo rendition of 鈥淪omewhere,鈥 a song of hope usually sung by the romantic leads. Here it is devastating, played as song of longing and loss. If my goosebumps voted for the Academy Awards, Moreno would have another statue to put on her shelf.
鈥淲est Side Story鈥 is Spielberg鈥檚 most compelling film in years. It reinvents, reimagines, and recontextualizes a classic story with energy, respect, and lots of finger snapping.
DON鈥橳 LOOK UP: 3 ½ STARS
Movies about giant objects hurdling through space toward Earth are almost as plentiful as the stars in the sky. 鈥淎rmageddon,鈥 鈥淒eep Impact,鈥 and 鈥淛udgment Day鈥 all pose end-of-the-world scenarios, but none have the satirical edge of 鈥淒on鈥檛 Look Up.鈥 The darkly comedic movie, now in theatres but coming soon to Netflix, paints a grim, on-the-nose picture of how the world responds to a crisis.
Jennifer Lawrence is PhD candidate Kate Dibiasky, a student astronomer who discovers a comet the size of Mount Everest aimed directly at our planet. Her professor, Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), comes to the alarming conclusion that the comet will collide with Earth in six months and 14 days in what he calls an 鈥渆xtinction level event.鈥
They take their concerns to NASA and the White House, but are met with President Janie Orlean鈥檚 (Meryl Streep) concerns about optics, costs and the upcoming mid-term elections. 鈥淭he timing is just disastrous,鈥 she says. 鈥淟et鈥檚 sit tight and assess.鈥
With the clock ticking to total destruction Dibiasky and Mindy go public, but their dire warnings on the perky news show 鈥淭he Rip鈥濃斺淲e keep the bad news light!鈥濃攇o unheeded. Social media focusses on Dibiasky鈥檚 panic, creating memes of her face, while dubbing Mindy the 'Bedroom Eyed Doomsday Prophet.'
As the comet hurdles toward Earth, the world becomes divided between those willing to look up and do something about the incoming disaster, and the deniers who think that scientists 鈥渨ant you to look up because they are looking down their noses at you.鈥
Chaos breaks out, and the division widens as the comet closes in on its target.
It is not difficult to find parallels between the events in 鈥淒on鈥檛 Look Up鈥 and recent world occurrences. Director and co-writer Adam McKay explores the reaction to world affairs through a lens of Fake News, clickbait journalism, skepticism of science, political spin, and social media gone amok. In fact, the topics McKay hits on don鈥檛 really play like satire at all. The social media outrage, bizarro-land decisions made by people in high offices, and the influence of tech companies all sound very real world as if ripped out of today鈥檚 newspapers.
It鈥檚 timely, but perhaps too timely. Social satire is important, and popular鈥斺淪aturday Night Live鈥 has done it successfully for decades鈥攂ut 鈥淒on鈥檛 Look Up,鈥 while brimming with good ideas, often feels like an overkill of familiarity. The comet is fiction, at least I hope it is, but the reaction to it and the on-coming catastrophe feels like something I might see on Twitter just before the lights go down in the theatre.
It feels a little too real to be pure satire. There are laughs throughout, but it鈥檚 the serious questions that resonate. When Mindy, on TV having his 鈥淣etwork鈥 moment, rages, 鈥淲hat the hell happened to us? What have we done to ourselves and how do we fix it?鈥 the movie becomes a beacon. The satire comes easily鈥攍et鈥檚 face it, the world is full of easy targets鈥攂ut it鈥檚 the asking of hard questions and in the frustration of a world gone mad, when McKay鈥檚 point that we鈥檙e broken and don鈥檛 appreciate the world around us, shines through.
Despite big, glitzy Hollywood names above the title and many laugh lines, 鈥淒on鈥檛 Look Up鈥 isn鈥檛 escapism. It鈥檚 a serious movie that aims to entertain, but really wants to make you think.
BEING THE RICARDOS: 3 ½ STARS
鈥淏eing the Ricardos,鈥 the new Aaron Sorkin directed look at the most famous television couple of the 1950s, in theaters this weekend and on Prime Video December 21, is a character study that examines one very bad week on the sitcom set of 鈥淚 Love Lucy.鈥
In 1953, 鈥淚 Love Lucy鈥 was watched by 60 million people a week. The show was so popular that department stores had to change their hours. The big box stores used to stay open late on Mondays, but switched to Thursdays because no one shopped on Monday nights while Lucy, Desi, Fred, and Ethel were on.
Real life couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, played in the film by Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, are television鈥檚 biggest stars as they prepare to shoot episode four of their second season. Tension hangs heavy over the set as the result of two news stories about the couple.
First is Confidential Magazine, a sleazy tabloid that specializes in scandal and exposé journalism, that accuses Desi of having an affair in a lurid article titled "Desi's Wild Night Out.鈥 More damningly, another report suggests Lucy is a communist, under investigation by the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee.
The accusation against Desi causes trouble at home, but even a whiff of communism around Lucy could lead to a stink that would ruin both their careers. The Hollywood blacklist looms.
鈥淵ou and me have been through worse than this,鈥 Desi says reassuringly.
鈥淗ave we?鈥 she asks.
鈥淣辞.鈥
Set up like a pseudo-documentary, modern day talking heads keep the story moving forward while flashbacks flesh out the action. We learn about how the couple met, their volatile relationship鈥"They were either tearing each other鈥檚 clothes off,鈥 says writer Madelyn Pugh (Linda Lavin), 鈥渙r tearing one another鈥檚 heads off.鈥濃攁nd how the show and Lucy鈥檚 perfectionism are more than just a professional concern. 鈥淚 Love Lucy鈥 was the glue that held her marriage together, especially during troubled times.
It can be tricky portraying familiar figures on screen. Through endless re-runs Lucille Ball鈥檚 face and comedy are iconic, but Kidman and Bardem wisely chose not to do imitations of the stars. They have the mannerisms and a passing resemblance to Lucy and Desi, but this is about character not caricature. For the most part, this is a backstage drama that wisely stays away from restaging scenes from 鈥淚 Love Lucy鈥 that are burned into people鈥檚 imaginations. What we get instead are interpretations of these characters that corral their collective charisma, hot tempers and talent.
What emerges is a scattershot portrait of fame, creative control and the power of the press. Sorkin juggles a lot of moving parts, but by the time the end credits roll, it鈥檚 difficult to know exactly what point he is trying to make. Ball is given the credit she deserves as a trailblazer and Arnaz鈥檚 business acumen is celebrated, but the other, colliding plot points feel cobbled together. Any one of them鈥攖he communism scare, Desi鈥檚 alleged infidelity, Lucy鈥檚 pregnancy or the cast in-fighting鈥攃ould have sufficed as a compelling backdrop to the Lucy and Desi story. Instead, the movie feels overstuffed.
鈥淏eing the Ricardos鈥 does justice to the legacy of its subjects, and features pages of Sorkin鈥檚 trademark, snappy dialogue, but splinters off in too many directions to be truly effective.
