There’s no market or audience for it.
I saw it.
Thought it was good.
They have chased us out of movie theaters. They were mostly struggling with streaming anyway. Two years almost now of lockdowns. At least in California. Patterns change. People aren’t that flexible.
Why hasn’t the Kancel Klan called out the ‘colorism’ as they did with Lin Manuel Miranda’s “The Heights”? It seems they can be selective on which targets they go after.
It’s a musical, people don’t like musicals because they’re gay.
“Hey gang, wadda ya want ta do?”
“Let’s go roller skating!!”
(break into song)
“Rooolla skating rollaaa skating
Doooont be hating we’re going rolllla skating”
Indeed, I'll go to see the reissue of a classic even if I own a home copy for the superior sound and image quality. It was my pleasure not long ago to take a young nephew to see E.T. as it was meant to be seen.
Last movie seen was C'mon C'mon which was nice in spite of the f-bombs (a couple of them nuclear!) which, while uncomfortable, helped drive the story.
Never cared forWest Side Story...
Good article.
Peggy Noonan ....Meh
I stopped caring about her opinion many moons ago.
Sitting with a crowd at an entertainment venue just doesn’t appeal to me anymore. Getting old and crotchety.
Probably missing out on a lot, but I’ve been there done that.
I love musicals. Yes, I know that’s geeky.
I enjoyed the original movie and saw a revival production on stage (traveling Broadway) in the 90s.
My high school BFF saw this over the weekend and she liked it. I was avoiding it because I thought it might be in-your-face-woke, but maybe I’ll give it a shot.
People just love that Marvel crap at the theater. That’s almost all they show up for.
I’ve heard really good things about it. Cal Thomas raves about it. I think the problem is people don’t seem generally interested in musicals these days. And most of us have gotten used to just staying home and waiting until it comes out as a rental on streaming services. Movie theaters are just too expensive and the only movies with any life left in them are the big blockbusters like Spiderman, which is a great movie BTW.
Because American audiences must have forced on them extended sections of the film in Spanish, without subtitles.
Otherwise, it would be so...
Switchblades were terrifying cool in the 60’s. No one cares about them anymore.
wife and I saw it,wasnt impressed.the fact that half the movie was in spanish without subtitles pissed us both off.The girl playing maria had a horse face and reminded me of aoc.didnt care for the anybody character,felt they went over the top trans.prefer the original.
Good article.
I never saw WSS on stage, and I didn’t care for the original film. I do like musicals, some of them, but WSS never grabbed me. Matter of personal taste; I understand that it is an iconic film that should be somewhere on people’s cultural literacy list, and I saw it once years ago so I can check that box. At this point, however, I am rooting for every theatrical release to do well because I’m concerned for the survival of a distribution platform that isn’t completely controlled by the streamers. WSS doesn’t grab me enough to go to the theater, but I’m sorry it’s not doing better.
The three best movies I’ve seen this year, all in theaters: Old Henry; The Most Reluctant Convert; Montana Story. (Old Henry is the only one currently available for streaming.) I intend to get out to at least one more film in the theater before the end of the year. Belfast and C’mon, C’mon are the top candidates at this point. Four movies in the theater in one year would be a lot for me, but I’m trying to vote for good films in the best way I can.
[Btw, Barack Obama this week released his list of favorite movies of 2021. Fair enough. He did like Old Henry and The Last Duel (which I’ve not yet seen but which is on my list). I am willing to acknowledge the occasional moments when BHO gets something right. Check out Old Henry if you haven’t seen it already.]
Noonan emphasized the shared, communal value of people seeing movies in theaters. That misses the mark as far as I’m concerned. The shared experience is nice if people are well behaved. And frankly, I’ve not had any bad audience experiences, probably because I don’t go to the comic book movies that attract the sketchy teenager and young adult crowd. In my experience, if you go to an adult movie, you will find an adult crowd, and it will be well behaved.
Unfortunately, Noonan overlooks the bigger problem, which is the increasing vertical and horizontal integration of all communications media. I don’t want six giant global companies to control 99 percent of the information flow across all media. The streamers are in the process of swallowing the film industry and turning movies into generic television. Quality is spiraling downward. And as the streamers invest ever more heavily in content origination, the PC police and DEI committees shorten the leash on independent producers.
It may be time for some serious antitrust action to break up the giant media cartels. I don’t want the same companies that censor content and shadow ban or deplatform conservatives across so many internet platforms to also have complete control over what movies get financing and distribution. Independent theaters, independent film festivals and a healthy theatrical scene are important parts of maintaining a non-Borg distribution system.
make a movie worth going to see and we will go see it.
Keep making this woke shit and go fish.
Would I be amiss to propose that West Side Story is as much a period-piece as maybe, The Graduate? Kinda locked in its storytelling to another place and time, and full of context and commentary that ain’t everyman or universal to the human condition, dependent too much on the setting (time and place)?
I thought it was a long shot when I heard about it in production.