Review: ‘West Side Story’ Re-Imagines the Classic Tale For a Modern Audience

Sixty years since the film last graced movie screens, West Side Story is back. This time around, legendary director Steven Spielberg takes his shot at the classic re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet. Set in New York in 1957, The Upper West Side is divided between two teenage street gangs, the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. The two gangs have a bitter rivalry fighting for control of the neighborhood, but their quest seems futile as the neighborhood is set to be demolished to make room for Lincoln Center. One day, Tony (Ansel Elgort), a former Jet, locks eyes with María (Rachel Zegler), the younger sister of the Shark’s leader Bernando (David Alvarez). As the two gangs prepare for a rumble, the star-crossed lovers are caught in the middle, desperate to be together and also save the people they care about. 

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Review: At Least ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Isn’t As Bad As It Could Have Been

Here on the internet, we all love discourse, and what produces discourse better than a film adaptation of an infamously controversial stage musical?

Dear Evan Hansen premiered just a few weeks ago, but the memes and critiques have been going strong for months, if not years. Based on the Justin Paul, Benj Pasek, and Steven Levenson musical that took Broadway by storm—and changed the shape of theater kid beef for generations to come—the film is a pretty average teenage drama. Socially anxious and virtually friendless, Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) accidentally inserts himself into the middle of a family tragedy when his therapy exercise is mistaken for the suicide note of his peer, Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan). Spinning a web of lies and fake emails, Evan attempts to offer what he believes to be hope to the grieving family, all while becoming closer and closer to Connor’s sister Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever), his long-time crush. When Evan’s house of cards inevitably begins to collapse, he is forced to ask himself what it means to help others, and what it means to help yourself.

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Review: ‘In the Heights’ is a Nice Musical Tale of Hopes and Dreams

Broadway musical blockbusters are always a hit-or-miss despite their catchy songs, but In the Heights is definitely a hit to me. The play version of In the Heights is mostly famous for being the musical that helped catapult Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda into the public sphere. And the 2021 film version, helmed by Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu, is a triumphant adaptation, confidently reworking the stage show into a gorgeous, vibrant film that captures both the bigness of musical theater and the intimacy that comes with telling a story about a specific culture. In its joyous excess, In the Heights makes a case for adapting Broadway musicals into Hollywood cinema. The musical numbers are freed from the boundaries of the stage, and they don’t waste that freedom. The dance routines feel like gorgeous action-movie set-pieces, thanks to Alice Brooks’ cinematography, and the cast is a constellation of Latinx legends and up-and-comers alike. Every summer should have a movie like this one.

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Retrospective: ‘The Young Girls of Rochefort’ is an Utterly Unique and Unfairly Overlooked French Musical

Perhaps because they have the capacity to inspire joy and happiness in their audiences, musicals have gained a reputation in high art circles for being purely entertainment: well-crafted, but lacking in emotional depth. The films of French director Jacques Demy defy this elitist categorization of musicals as low art, and they embrace both sorrow and glee to produce a unique and nuanced emotional complexity. Continue reading “Retrospective: ‘The Young Girls of Rochefort’ is an Utterly Unique and Unfairly Overlooked French Musical” →

Review: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ Needs a Few More Spoonfuls of Sugar

Children, grab your pitchforks: the adults are jaded again! Or at least that’s what Disney wants you to believe with its second live-action film of the year featuring the same recurring theme. Unlike Christopher Robin, Mary Poppins Returns has more to live up to seeing as it’s the sequel to one of the most beloved films of all time. Also unlike Christopher Robin (or the original Mary Poppins for that matter), Mary Poppins Returns falls short of being anything memorable.

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