24 ARTS
As long as young men are killing
each other for no good reason, “West
Side Story shouldn’t be a trip down
memory lane,” said Johnny Olek-
sin ski in the New York Post. Ivo van
Hove’s “galvanizing” overhaul of
the classic 1957 musical strips away
Jerome Rob bins’ balletic choreogra-
phy and even jettisons “I Feel Pretty,”
the show’s sweetest song. But the
trims render “newly suspenseful and
gripping” the central story about a
budding romance between two teen-
agers with strong ties to rival New
York City gangs. Van Hove has taken
liberties, but this is “still the show you
love,” reinvented for the time in which
we live. “Like an artist with a degree in car-
diology,” said Peter Marks in The Wash ing-
ton Post, the Bel gian director “has operated
on West Side Story and freshly exposed its
passionate, throbbing heart.”A few poor choices ruin the effort, said
Ben Brantley in The New York Times. Van
Hove has placed enormous video screens
above the actors, upon which he projectsA gangland face-off—on both stage and screenWest Side Story
Broadway Theatre, New York City, (212) 239-6200 ++++25-foot-tall images of them—sometimes
filmed earlier in street settings, sometimes
sharing live footage. Too often, “these dis-
embodied Goliaths wind up upstaging their
flesh-and-blood selves,” making the pro-
duction “curiously unaffecting” as a whole.
And it doesn’t help that the Jets and the
Sharks are now multiethnic youth gangs.
Because all the performers are dressed in
modern street clothes, when they rumble,“they tend to blur into one indis-
criminate mass.”“So is it all trash? No,” said Helen
Shaw in New York magazine. Isaac
Powell and Shereen Pimentel play
Tony and Maria, the show’s Romeo
and Juliet characters, and they “do
their iconic parts proud,” delivering
a winning youthfulness and gorgeous
versions of the Leonard Bernstein–
Stephen Sondheim ballads “Maria”
and “Tonight.” But New York City
Ballet dancer Amar Ramasar, who
plays Shark leader Bernardo, turns
out to be an unsteady singer and
hammy actor. And the distracting
video imagery makes this a West Side Story
that’s “mortally divided against itself.” If
only van Hove had trusted more in the
power of the show’s best moments, as
when he has the ensemble stand together
under low light to sing “Somewhere.” With
that plaintive ode to the possibility of a less
brutal world, “van Hove touches the live
wire of his own show”—and hints at what
it might’ve been.Review of reviews: Stage & Film
Jan Versweyveld, Universal Pictures, IFC FilmsIf there’s any place in 2020
for the movie monsters of old,
the new Invisible Man is “a
template for their renaissance,”
said Brian Truitt in USA Today.
Director Leigh Whannell and
star Elisabeth Moss have reimag-
ined the story as a psychological
thriller about a woman terror-
ized by a tech-genius ex who has
devised a way to move about
unseen. Working with a tight budget, Whannell
conjures more tension from vacant rooms than from
special effects, but he “knows the right moments to
spring a jump scare” and succeeds in turning a dated
bogeyman into a “spookily fresh” modern fiend.The movie is anything but fun,
though, said Armond White in
NationalReview.com. It’s more
“insipid agitprop” from the
studio that gave us Get Out,
only this time the monsters aren’t
racist suburbanites but virtually
all men. The uneven final act
“goes deep into genre excess,”
unfortunately, said Benjamin Lee
in TheGuardian.com. Even so,
this Invisible Man is “a striking diversion,” fueled by
a plot that freshens the familiar story of an abused
woman fighting for the right to be believed. Around
its star, “there’s not nearly enough inventiveness on
display,” but Moss is “as compelling as ever.”This low-budget romantic
drama isn’t exactly original,
“but it feels that way,” said
Jeannette Catsoulis in The New
York Times. Its co-writer, Zora
Howard, also co-stars, playing
a 17-year-old who during her
last summer in Harlem before
college falls for a chivalrous and
somewhat older newcomer. As
they bond over a love of art—
she’s a poet; he’s a music producer—“every moment
rings true.” Howard and Joshua Boone are “close to
flawless,” and the dialogue itself “has swagger and
swing.” Howard’s collaborator, director RashaadErnesto Green, “clearly has
some growing to do,” said Peter
Debruge in Variety. But he was
deservedly named “someone
to watch” by the Independent
Spirit Awards. The love scenes
between Howard’s Ayanna
and Boone’s Isaiah are, in par-
ticular, “beautifully rendered.”
And though the screenplay’s
dialogue “all but dances,” said
Justin Chang in the Los Angeles Times, Green and
Howard also know when to go silent. “To watch
Ayanna quietly think her way through each situation
is to watch a person coming into being.”The Invisible
Man
A control freak
haunts his ex.++++
Directed by
Leigh Whannell
(R)Premature
A gifted 17-year-old
experiences first love.++++
Directed by Rashaad
Ernesto Green
(Not rated)Moss: Fighting to be believedSoulmates Boone and Howard