In the Heights (2021)
dir. Jon M. Chu
Rated: PG-13
image: ©2021 Warner Bros. Pictures
Let me tell you a story. Have you heard of the Broadway musical Hamilton? Of course you have. Well, the guy who created it and launched a phenomenon wrote another musical before he set the world on fire with Hamilton. It was called In the Heights, and it was also a success, running a little under three years for 1,184 performances on Broadway. After having seen the touring version of Hamilton, the filmed version of the Broadway production – the world is waiting for a proper movie version – and listening to the cast recording on repeat (my wife fell in love with it when the show really caught fire in 2016), I felt I had a handle on what creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is all about. After seeing the film adaptation of In the Heights, that assessment is confirmed. LMM is a champion of unabashed optimism and joy.
Miranda’s material might strike some as cheesy or cloying. In fact, there are a few moments and elements of In the Heights that struck me as exactly that. Gen Z, who are now in the beginning stages of wresting control of the (especially internet-dominant) culture away from Millennials, have begun roasting the multi-hyphenate on social media apps like TikTok. (As someone who identifies with the micro-generation known as Gen Oregon Trail, I’m coming to terms with the fact that none of these whippersnappers gives a damn about anything I have to say.) Miranda’s overly earnest demeanor is the focus of much of the (mostly light-hearted) derision.
In the Heights is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Do the Right Thing. Where Spike Lee’s seminal rumination on racism is full of righteous anger and defiance, In the Heights has some of that same anger, but the sharp edges are mostly sanded down and smoothed out. Miranda’s music and lyrics, along with Quiara Alegría Hudes’s screenplay – Hudes also wrote the book for the Broadway show – tells a story of struggle and hardship that can ultimately be overcome through hard work and determination.
Mostly set over the course of three days leading to a city-wide blackout, the film focuses on the predominantly Dominican population of the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. Our protagonist, Usnavi de la Vega, runs a neighborhood bodega, but his dream is to return to the Dominican Republic to reopen his deceased father’s business, a beach-front shop. A family friend and attorney, Alejandro, has finalized the purchase of the business for Usnavi, who makes plans to head to what he considers his real home.
Meanwhile, Vanessa, the woman Usnavi has a crush on, dreams of moving out of the Heights and becoming a fashion designer. She applies for a new apartment in downtown, but is rejected, she suspects because of her Latinx heritage. Another local, Nina, “the one who got out,” is back from a disastrous first year at Stanford. Nina dreads telling her father, Kevin, who runs the neighborhood car service, that she has decided to drop out of school and return home. Nina and Benny, Kevin’s employee, reconnect after Nina’s time in California, and flirt with acting on their romantic feelings for each other.
It’s a fairly standard, arguably uninspired – especially the various romantic subplots – set up, but the fact that a Broadway musical, and now a major Hollywood movie, focuses solely on the Latinx experience, told from a Latinx point of view, is exciting. Accusations of colorism – which deserve to be heard – aside, Miranda and Hudes have brought Latinx representation on screen to a new generation. It’s heartening to think of the millions of young Latinx people who will see themselves on screen when they watch In the Heights, inspiring them to make their own dreams a reality.
As with Hamilton, the songs featured throughout In the Heights are infectious and filled with joy. The eponymous opening number, in which we’re introduced to Usnavi, Vanessa, Nina, Benny, “Abuela” Claudia, the neighborhood grand-matriarch, and the rest of the Washington Heights enclave residents, is a show-stopper. Upon its climactic crescendo, I could imagine the Broadway audience erupting into applause, and I had to restrain myself from doing the same in the middle of the darkened movie theater in which I was sitting.
Director Jon Chu, who had a mega-hit with his 2018 picture Crazy Rich Asians, makes a concerted effort to bring a distinctly cinematic touch to his adaptation of In the Heights. The first hint of that comes in the opening number. Chu stages a massive dance sequence, spanning a whole New York city block, something almost impossible to imagine taking place on a live-theater stage.
For another song, 96,000, where Usnavi discovers that his bodega sold a winning lottery ticket worth $96,000, the neighborhood collectively dreams what they each would do with the money. Chu makes the most of the cinematic form. Part of the number takes place in a community swimming pool, and Chu stages a synchronized dance sequence straight out of a Busby Berkeley musical. The detailed and complex choreography only comes to full life when seen from the air, meaning that only an overhead camera – and a uniquely cinematic approach – can create the awe of the sequence.
Chu also adds touches of whimsical magical realism throughout In the Heights. One is as simple as the characters’ hand movements creating geometric shapes and patterns in the air as they excitedly gesticulate during the 96,000 number. Another dance sequence features mannequin heads with wigs on them in a salon coming to life and tittering with laughter. It Won’t Be Long Now, in which Vanessa sings about making her dream of becoming a fashion designer come true, showcases giant bolts of fabric streaming down the sides of buildings. But without a doubt, the most exciting bit of Chu’s magical realism is a sequence between Nina and Benny that has the couple dancing up the side of a building. Moments like this made it easy for me to get caught up in the excitement that Miranda, Hudes, and Chu stage.
There’s an attempted sleight of hand – from what I understand, an addition to the stage play – at the beginning of the film that seems a little cheap when it pays off in the movie’s final minutes. It’s the one bit of magical realism that doesn’t quite work. Other additions and changes to the stage version, like references to DACA Dreamers – a term that wasn’t widely used when the play was written – and one character’s struggles with being undocumented, add poignancy to an otherwise by-the-numbers story of hope and striving.
Still, Gen Z-ers – or Zoomers, or whatever they’re called; I admit it, I’m old – might take people like Lin-Manuel Miranda to task for over-optimism to the point of being pollyannaish, but I found In the Heights to be refreshing. In this cesspool of a world, where each new day brings a new reason to expect the worst, Miranda and Hudes’s story of unabashed exuberance is a delight.
Why it got 3.5 stars:
- In the Heights is absolutely effervescent and a fun time at the movies. Miranda and Hudes’s story tackles some tough issues, but it never leaves the joy and hopefulness on the sidelines for long. Those with an aversion to syrupy sweetness might need to enter with caution, but otherwise the film is a delight.
Things I forgot to mention in my review, because, well, I'm the Forgetful Film Critic:
- Much of the praise being heaped on In the Heights has to do with Anthony Ramos’s lead performance of Usnavi. I didn’t get to performances in my review, but it’s true, Ramos is magnetic here. This is an ensemble piece where ever member shines.
- I won’t spoil it, but I got a kick out of Usnavi’s explanation about how he got his unusual name.
- I really felt (and enjoyed) the heavy New York vibe of In the Heights. The majority of the movie was shot in and around the real Washington Heights. That gives everything about it an authenticity that is impossible to replicate on a soundstage.
- There is a great Easter egg for fans of Hamilton here. At one point, a character is on hold on the phone, and the hold music is a muzak version of You’ll Be Back from Miranda’s musical.
Close encounters with people in movie theaters:
I could have watched In the Heights at home on HBO Max (it’s available to subscribers there through July 11th), but I wanted the big screen experience for this one. There were only a handful of people (10 or so) in the theater, so I didn’t get the electricity of a big audience collectively in sync with the movie. It was still a superior experience to watching it at home.