Mike Faist’s Riff Will Haunt You Long After ‘West Side Story’ is Over

West Side Story premieres on both Disney+ and HBO Max today, meaning that now everyone can stream one of the most beautiful pieces of cinema from the last year whenever and wherever they like. They can thrill over Ariana DeBose‘s glorious Anita, get chills over newcomer Rachel Zegler‘s glorious film debut, and rewind that viral Spielberg oner to their hearts content. But the thing that I’m most stoked about — as a huge fan of the film — is the amount of people who are about to discover Mike Faist‘s performance as Riff.

Mike Faist was not the supporting West Side Story cast member singled out with an Oscar nomination this year, but his work has stuck with me the most. When I think about West Side Story, I think about Faist’s extension as a dancer, the pain in his eyes, and the verve of his whole performance. Mike Faist’s Riff will haunt you well after West Side Story is over, and he deserves way more shine for that.

West Side Story is director Steven Spielberg’s gorgeous adaptation of the original 1957 Broadway musical, with a script adapted by Tony Kushner and choreography by Justin Peck. The story is a re-imagination of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, set in 1950s New York City. Juliet is now Maria (Rachel Zegler), a sweet Puerto Rican immigrant new to the city, and Romeo is reformed Polish-American street brawler Tony (Ansel Elgort). Through dance and song, Tony and Maria fall in love as their communities respectively fall apart. Maria’s brother Bernardo (David Alvarez) is the leader of the Puerto Rican gang the Sharks while Tony is besties with Riff, the leader of the all-white Jets.

Spielberg’s film makes pains to show the awful irony that these young kids are fighting over a neighborhood that the upper and middle class is squeezing them both out of. And the person who seems to be most in a crisis over his neighborhood’s impending extinction is Riff.

In a lesser performer’s hands, Riff would be just a simple racist bully. After all, he loathes his Puerto Rican neighbors and seems more fluent in the language of violence than his native English. But Faist plays Riff as a terrified little boy lashing out as a last means of survival. He’s been abandoned by his family, his friends (in the case of Tony), and now by his city. His viciousness is so rooted in sorrow that his self-destructive choices are obviously his preferred mode of expressing what a modern-day person might identify as suicidal ideation.

What helps Faist pull off this magnetic tour de force is the fact he is a classic triple threat: a singer, dancer, and actor who came up through the Broadway stage. What’s so magical, though, is how easily he translates his talents to the screen. He holds his own against the Oscar-nominated DeBose and eclipses the matinee idol he’s supposed to have second billing to. He’s simply transcendent.

Mike Faist might not win an Oscar for West Side Story, but his Riff is officially one of the great movie musical performances of all time.

Where to stream West Side Story