For some unexplainable reason, Thanksgiving isn’t just an excuse to throw on your fat pants and stuff your face with three different kinds of pie all day. It’s also a reason to play super nostalgic movies we all know, but probably haven’t seen in forever.
For some, that means four hours of “Gone With the Wind.” For others, it means “A Streetcar named Desire.” And for me, it’s “West Side Story.” You know, the ‘60s “Romeo and Juliet” inspired story of two opposing gangs (the Jets and the Sharks), who get shaken to the core by an intense loooooooove connection between puerto rican immigrant Maria and totally, undeniably, inextricably white Tony.
But times have changed, and watching this movie is a way different experience now, at 20 years old, than it was when I was the ripe old age of 10. Here are 49 thoughts I had while re-watching the craziness that is “West Side Story.”
1. Yaaaaaaaaas. Bring on the passion, the betrayal, the rumbles and the perfect choreography.
2. That moment when the opening music comes on, then after 10 minutes, you realize they’re playing the score of the entire movie before it even starts and this is going to take a while.
3. I can’t take these “gangs” seriously when they’re all snapping fingers and doing pirouettes down the street like this.
4. Yo, the brown face is real for some of these people playing Puerto Ricans…
5. Mhmmm. The Jets=Trumpism basically.
6. Good golly Ms. Dolly. Tony is so handsome.
7. The song “Who Knows” is literally me dreaming of what I’m going to blow my money on every time I get a new paycheck…
8. I love you Natalie Wood, but how hard would it have been to get an actual Hispanic woman to play Maria?!
9. I am totally team Sharks, just on their color palette alone. Come through with the jewel tones, y’all!
10. I wish I took anything as seriously as these people take their dance battles.
11. I am girl crushing on Anita hardcore right now. My new goal in life is to be her and breathe her forever and always.
12. Dude, if I could dance like any of these people, I would have BEEN dropped out of school.
13. Okay, I just looked up the lyrics to “Maria” and Tony literally says her name 28 times. I can’t tell if that’s the most romantic thing ever, or the most psycho.
14. “Sometimes, I don’t know which is thicker: your skull or your accent.” Yaaaaaas, Anita!
15. I’m with Nardo on this one. Anita, you would not like to be in America right about now…
16. Oh my gosh, Tony and Maria have know each other for an hour, and their already pledging their allegiance to one another. MAN, times have changed.
17. Did Tony just say, “I love you” ??!?!?!?!? Dude, CALM. DOWN.
18. And did Riff just dismiss his girlfriend from the store with a smack on the butt?!?! Again, CALM. DOWN.
19. I love how these two gangs are just casually discussing how they want to kill each other, sitting at the table like it’s no biggie. Oh, it’s a biggie. Guys, it’s like the biggest biggie.
20. Yo, not saying all cops suck by any means, but this one DEFINITELY does.
21. And the store owner is so annoying! He sees all this drama, and knows everybody’s business, but doesn’t do anything about it. Dude, you’re like, a 100 years old. They’re all teenagers. Get a grip, people’s lives are on the line!
22. Oh my gosh, why did movies ever decide to get rid of intermissions, they are so genius. Now I can pee and heat up more stuffing like a BOSS.
23. “I Feel Pretty” is totally the OG “Flawless” by Beyonce. Seriously, Maria in this scene is me every time I put on mascara and fill in my eyebrows.
24. Maria, you barely know Tony, let alone what his right hook looks like. Why would you send him to go stop a fight with KNIVES, armed with nothing but a positive attitude? He’s only one man, you silly rabbit!
25. I love how neither Maria, nor Tony is freaked out by this whole marriage conversation. Like, y’all ain’t got commitment issues or nothing? What, is that like, a millennial thing?
26. Wow, this rumble is about to go DOWN like CHINATOWN and Anita’s just thinking, “I don’t care what happens tonight. I just want Nardo to come home so I can put the moves on my boo joint.” Gotta love her.
27. Death by shanking is officially my worst fear in life.
28. RIPP Riff. I hated you, but dang. That is so not fetch.
29. Aaaaaaaaand RIP Nardo. Is it weird that the only reason I feel so bad right now is because now, Anita won’t get her “kicks” tonight?
30. Maria re-imagining her first dance with Tony is basically the equivalent of gawking over old texts from bae.
31. Ugh, Chino is without a doubt, the black licorice of this movie.
32. Your lover kills your brother half an hour ago, and you reward him with sex, Maria?! Sweetie boo boo, you gotta do better.
33. Ugh, every time I see these Jets on my television screen, I just want to fast forward. They have nothing on the sharks, and they know it, and that’s why they’re so petty. Make like Elsa and let it go for goodness’ sake.
34. I wish people still referred to their friends as “buddy boy” and “Daddy-O.” Those are some grade A terms of endearment.
35. Tony, you may be cute (like, really cute) but your whole “Maria, I’m a dreamer and I love you and we can do anything we want and nobody can stop us and oh my gosh let’s just run away together and throw away everything for each other” mentality is getting so. OLD.
36. Natalie Wood is like Mariah Carey over here! How is she hitting these notes?!
37. There’s no one I hate more in this move than this cop, man…
38. Never mind, the Jets take the cake. They are so FOUL.
39. I don’t know how many sexual assault scenes have been tackled in theater, but this one is incredibly powerful. How dare the Jets lay even one finger on Anita?
40. Yaaaaaaaaas, store owner! Tony really did need to be slapped in the face. Your over here dreaming about names for you and Maria’s future babies, meanwhile, Anita almost got gang raped upstairs, all at the hands of YOUR pathetic friends.
41. Ugh, I just want to scream in Tony’s pretty little face sometimes. Maria’s been “dead,” for five seconds. Stop running around town trying to get Chino to blow your brains out like a maniac.
42. Yaaaaaaaaaaas! It’s Maria!
43. Noooooooooo! It’s Chino!
44. “Hold my hand and we’re halfway there.” Ugh, Tony dying in Maria’s arms is so heartbreaking.
45. Wow, Maria’s got Chino’s gun and she’s about to go Rambo on these dudes!
46. JK, she ain’t bout that life.
47. Wow, she’s serving total fierceness with that red scarf over her head, though.
48. Finally, everyone’s doing what they should have done from the very beginning: GOING HOME.
49. I can’t lie: it would have been so epic if Maria capped somebody, but otherwise, such an epic ending.
Mhmm, now I know why they play this on Thanksgiving. This is most definitely the movie to end all movies to eat your feelings to.