–after Steven Spielberg

In this version there are no Jets
or Sharks. There is no Tony
or María. There are no upbeat
dance numbers. This isn’t
a feel-good story. The whole score
is a slow bolero looped for 152 minutes.
“America” is turned into a remix
of “Lamento borincano,” the elegy
it was always meant to be.
The opening scene is a flight
from San Juan to New York
post-María (I guess there is
a María in this movie). It contains
the film’s only cameo: Rita Moreno
stepping off the plane, looking back,
fighting off tears, before she turns forward,
disappears into a throng of bodies
just like the rest of us.