For our annual summer countdown, we are looking at our favorite 25 movies that were not huge hits during their initial release, but mean a lot to us. Check out last year’s Summer of Stars countdown or the year before when we did blockbusters!

by Tina Kakadelis, Staff Writer

My sister and I rarely agree. That’s not to say we’re in a constant state of arguing. I more so mean that the genetics we’ve inherited from our parents really run the gamut. We used to share a Spotify account which did cause some arguments. I would be peacefully listening to a sad Lucy Dacus or Bruce Springsteen song only to be interrupted by the bellowing voices of some sea shanty. Remember that bizarre TikTok sea shanty phase from late-2019? My sister is so unplugged from pop culture that she didn’t even realize a sea shanty phase had come and gone, but was notably annoyed at the abundance of autotuned “poser” sea shanties that started to crop up.

Perhaps the only thing we have in common is that we’re both gay, but even then, the similarity stops there. There was one instance a few years ago where we were both shocked that we found the same celebrity attractive. I was at my most patriotic: drunk at a bar rooting for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team during the World Cup. I sent my sister a text that said something along the lines of, “ I love Kelley O’Hara.” She responded in shock, asking how I knew Kelli O’Hara. To which I responded in even more shock, how did she know Kelley O’Hara?! You probably noticed what I did not notice at that moment: we were talking about two different O’Haras. One, a Broadway performer. The other, a soccer player.

I could spend all day, every day at a movie theatre, but my sister will only venture to one if there’s a movie musical playing. She is the only person I know who saw Dear Evan Hanson in theatres. And, coincidentally, one of the only people I know who saw Steven Spielberg’s take on West Side Story opening weekend.

Considered a box office bomb, Spielberg’s West Side Story is the second feature film adaptation of the stage musical from 1957. It might be blasphemous to say, but I’ve never seen the original in all of its glory. I’m not the biggest musical lover. There are a few that I adore, but it’s my sister who’s the musical fan in the family. When she lived in New York for college, she was constantly rushing shows. She also plays more instruments than I can keep up with remembering and may not have a lot of thoughts about the latest film releases, but she knows all of their scores.

Despite not living in the same place, we ended up seeing West Side Story (2021) at the same time. My theatre was almost empty, her’s entirely empty. No disrespect to Spielberg, but I didn’t have the highest expectations. The man responsible for Jaws and Indiana Jones is going to direct a musical? Sure, Steven. However, almost immediately, it became clear that Spielberg’s West Side Story was something special.

The film opens with the sounds of a person whistling as the camera pans over the rubble of a neighborhood that has been demolished to make way for Lincoln Center. There’s a lens flare that Spielberg is so well known for as the camera continues its winding journey. The music swells and the audience finally gets a glimpse of some of the Jets. The film’s first eight minutes are a mostly silent dance spectacle through the neighborhood that sets up the violence between the Sharks and the Jets.

The plot of West Side Story goes back to Shakespeare’ Romeo and Juliet. Instead of the Monatgues and the Capulets, we have the Sharks and the Jets. Romeo is now Tony (Ansel Elgort), Maria (Rachel Zegler) is Juliet. Riff (Mike Faist) runs the Jets, a gang of white men who believe they have the rights to their neighborhood. Bernardo (David Alvarez) is the leader of the Sharks, a group of men from Puerto Rico living in that neighborhood. Amidst the warring gangs is the love story of Maria and Tony.

Quite simply, it’s baffling that this was Zegler’s first time in a movie. She’d played Maria before in a local theatre production, but this was another scale entirely. The type of scale some actors may never get to see and here she was, on the set of her very first movie. It’s Zegler’s performance that I found myself returning to time and again. Her scene partner for the majority of the film is Elgort, the Tony to her Maria. In a film stacked with Broadway talent, Elgort does not fit. He’s stiff and awkward, clearly thinking about his movements more than living in the moment. His casting is the film’s major misfire and that’s not even taking into account the abuse allegations which make the audience wonder why he was cast to begin with.

It takes a special performance by Zegler to sell the emotional crux of Tony and Maria’s relationship. Her take on “I Feel Pretty” is extraordinary, the sort of breezy, airy, liveliness that comes with being sixteen and falling in love. When it’s Maria alone on the screen, singing about her love for Tony, it’s easy to forget that Tony has the personality of, as my sister eloquently says, a potato.

Zegler is not alone in turning in an exceptional performance. Ariana DeBose rightfully took home the Oscar for her portrayal of Anita, the same role that Rita Moreno also won an Oscar for in 1962. Moreno took on a new character in the 2021 adaptation and sang a gut-wrenching rendition of “Somewhere.” Alvarez and Faist also deserved to have been in the conversation for their performances as the two gang leaders. Vocally and musically, West Side Story has not sounded better. The orchestrations highlight and expand upon Leonard Bernstein’s original. Was there a more exhilarating moment in the 2021 film offerings to experience than DeBose and Alvarez dancing through the streets of New York singing “America?” It was one of those rare movie musical moments that manages to capture the magic of live theatre and makes you want to stand and cheer. A showstopper if I’ve ever seen one.

West Side Story is one of the uncommon instances of my sister and I agreeing on something. I texted her afterward to see if she got as swept up as I was. The short answer? Yes. The long answer? She’s still talking about how much she loves the movie. I’m sure if we still shared a Spotify account, “America” would easily be the most played song on Wrapped every year. When my sister and I went to visit our parents for Christmas a few weeks later, we would not stop talking about West Side Story. Our parents looked at us like we were strangers. It’s how they look at us during the once in a blue moon moments where we agree. However, it’s these rare moments of consensus where we’re likely onto something.