Why West Side Story deserves to win Best Picture
The 2022 Oscars ceremony is coming up on March 27, and 10 new movies are up for the Best Picture title: Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, and West Side Story. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and any of them might end up winning big. In the leadup to the Oscars, we’re making a case for why each of them might deserve to take the big prize.
West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg
A new adaptation of the classic stage musical by the storied team of Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story subtly updates the story from the Academy Award-winning 1961 adaptation starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer. The 1950s take on Romeo and Juliet chronicles a forbidden whirlwind romance between Tony and Maria, two teenagers with strong ties to rival gangs: the white Jets, and the Puerto Rican Sharks. As word of their attraction gets out, they become the nexus of a gang war over a Manhattan neighborhood’s changing demographics, as the Sharks and Jets face off over who owns their neighborhood — and by proxy, the right to the American Dream.
The 1961 film is one of the most lauded cinematic musicals ever made, nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning 10 — with one of those Oscars going to Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno for her performance as Anita. Remaking that classic is a gutsy move, but the filmmakers responsible — director Steven Spielberg, writer Tony Kushner, and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński — also happen to be some of the most lauded in their respective fields, and they’re swinging for the fences on this one.
There’s no shortage of reasons. It’s absolutely beautiful to look at, staged and shot
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