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West Side Story: from stage to film
West Side Story is a film from 2021 … No, wait: it’s from 1961 and it … Hold on: it’s originally a Broadway musical, for the theatre or, no, stop: it’s really just based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Gosh. As a Shakespeare groupie, I am amazed at how enduring and versatile the story is. (Dig deeper: Romeo and Juliet wasn’t really thought up exclusively by the Bard, either.) Why won’t we let this story go? What makes it so enduring?
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Respect: Biopic Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin was the queen of soul and totally deserved to get her story out there on film. But Respect felt a little shallow and lacking in details. I enjoyed it because of the music. But I don’t feel like I watched a very real story of her life. I wonder why. Let’s see if I can get to the bottom of that. I will be spoiling a little, but hey: if you go to a wiki page, you get the whole story too.