‘West Side Story’ First Reactions: ‘Top-Tier Spielberg,’ Rachel Zegler’s Star Shines Bright

Spielberg & Kushner’s West Side Story is powerful, driven by Bernstein & Sondheim’s sublime music and a gifted cast. With all the movie’s muscular choreography, the standouts are Broadway’s Ariana DeBose as Anita & Oscar-winning original Rita Moreno, and newcomer Rachel Zegler.

— Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) November 30, 2021

WEST SIDE STORY is *phenomenal.* Steven Spielberg has been talking about making a musical for almost his entire career, and this was worth the wait. This is top-tier Spielberg.

— Chris Evangelista (@cevangelista413) November 30, 2021

Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story 2.0 is an ecstatic act of ancestor-worship: a vividly dreamed, cunningly modified, visually staggering revival, passionately conservative but brilliant. No-one but Spielberg could have brought it off – review later

— Peter Bradshaw (@PeterBradshaw1) November 30, 2021

WEST SIDE STORY: If it's not quite essential, it's still tremendously entertaining. Vivid, beautiful work from our greatest living American moviemaker. Invigorating choice to have subtitle-less Spanish comprise ~40% of dialogue. David Alvarez is the breakout, but everyone's aces.

— Barry Hertz (@HertzBarry) November 30, 2021

Embargo lifted: I saw West Side Story tonight and I’m happy to report that musical theater will show up at the Oscars for impeccable visuals, Ariana DeBose is A DAMN STAR and it’s only the beginning for Rachel Zegler. I love this for us.

— Ayanna P. (@AyannaPrescod) November 30, 2021

More on WEST SIDE STORY on the whole in a bit, but first … HOLY MOLY, Mike Faist as Riff. One of those performances that grabs you by the collar, stops your pulse, and demands attention. That exceedingly rare pleasure of feeling like a star is forming before your eyes. A thrill. pic.twitter.com/mWfzaRGaIT

— Marshall Shaffer (@media_marshall) November 30, 2021

Hot damn. So, yes, as it turns out, Steven Spielberg knows how to make a WEST SIDE STORY movie

— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) November 30, 2021

WEST SIDE STORY thoughts:

Steven Spielberg directs the hell out of a mediocre script. What an eye-roll inducing story.

Anything related to The Jets is insufferable, hell most of The Sharks are as well. The ladies do the heavy-lifting. This is Zegler, DeBose, and Moreno’s movie

— EJ Moreno (@EJKhryst) November 30, 2021

Spielberg’s West Side Story does understand that the best thing that can happen on film is a bunch of people strutting toward the camera singing in harmony

— Jackson McHenry (@McHenryJD) November 30, 2021

WEST SIDE STORY has rocked my world.

Everyone is at the top of their game. Spielberg is a master. Under his direction, Kamiński is a camera wizard, aiming a show-stopping light on the shining star that is @rachelzegler.

So many things to rave over here. Too many to mention. pic.twitter.com/7oYeHM2dJa

— ᶜᴴᴿᴵˢ ˢᵀ ᴸᴬᵂᴿᴱᴺᶜᴱ (@ey2studios) November 30, 2021

I was hoping that WEST SIDE STORY (2021) would sate my decades-long desire for Spielberg to do a musical. Alas, it is so beautifully shot and staged, such an absolute schooling of the usual musical directors, that I fear I now want him to make two or three more.

— Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) November 30, 2021