A Brief WSS Minireview Before the Long One Later This Week

So here's a brief mini-review before a longer one later this week:

It liberates West Side Story from Arthur Laurents. It brings out all the meanings and contemporary resonances that were always there. It projects exactly how the flaws of the 50s landed us today. It's two modern American geniuses adding their layer to three geniuses from the past. It looks at every single point of view with compassion and humanity. It's at the same time a farewell to the old America, to the idea that teen love can be pure, to the aspirations of immigrants to Americanize, and it shows exactly what was wrong with each of those aspirations. And it's one of the few Spielberg movies to have an entirely realistic pessimism and worry for younger generations. It writes the biography both of Fox News watchers' childhoods and how marginalized communities stopped believing in America. It's filled with the kind of spiritual light you find in Rembrandt and Caravaggio, and it gives the kind of dignity to the whole American story artists used to give to saints.

They're gonna be watching this in 500 years.