In the Heights (2021 | USA | 143 minutes | Jon M. Chu)
A film that is as gloriously expansive and intricate as the community it portrays, In the Heights doesn’t always set every foot right though it still proves to be an engaging portrait of a people as told through music. Above all else, it is a vast improvement over the last newly released musical that I had seen (it was *shudders* Cats) as it breathes life into its world and gives most of its stars more than enough room to shine.
If there ever could be a more anticipated film that serves as a welcome back to the communal moviegoing experience, it would be Jon M. Chu’s bigscreen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony award-winning musical. Not only are musicals themselves built for seeing with a crowd, but by delaying its scheduled 2020 opening by a year, this one in particular has positioned itself to be one for all to go see. Be it for the musical theater geeks among us or just the average moviegoer, the film delivers what many have been missing in regards to seeing a film on the big screen.
Yes, it is not the first film to open in theaters nor is it solely going to play there. Like The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and Moral Kombat before it, after opening the Tribeca film festival, In the Heights will begin streaming on HBO Max on the same day it opens in theaters. However, its large scope choreography sequences convey an unmistakable sense that the theater may be the best way to get the fullest sense of the talent on display.
While discussing this film, there is a gigantic elephant in the room that must be addressed and his name is Alexander Hamilton. To many, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s breakout project Hamilton will be their entry point to this film. It is, after all, a production that won him the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and gave him the cachet to take on more projects.
My experience of watching Hamilton was the filmed version of the original cast production that was released last year on Disney+. That one time proved to be more than enough. It was not exceedingly bad by any means, though I came away largely unimpressed and mostly disappointed in how the supposedly transgressive nature of the production had been vastly oversold.
This is thankfully not the case with In the Heights, which Miranda wrote before Hamilton, a compliment that mostly can be credited to the cast and its direction. It stars the vastly underrated Anthony Ramos, whose performance in 2018’s Monsters and Men still resonates with me, as the bodega owner Usnavi de la Vega. With the help of his wisecracking cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV) Usnavi is running the store as a first-generation Dominican-American living in New York’s Washington Heights. He has been raised by his Abuela Claudia, played by an utterly fantastic Olga Merediz, after his parents died when he was younger. He is struggling to make ends meet and see a future for himself in the rapidly-changing neighborhood. With a country that actively doesn’t care for him and a community facing the threat of gentrification, it is easy to see why. In the face of all this, Usnavi has a “little dream” to return to his home country to take a different path. He desires to leave the world of Washington Heights behind to rebuild his father’s beloved bar.
On a sandy beach, an older version of Usnavi narrates the events of the film to a group of very patient small children. Most of his tale of his beloved disappearing neighborhood takes place over the course of a few days during a stifling heat wave that a countdown informs the audience will soon cause a blackout. The narrative framing, one that often can completely undercut tension by revealing where everything is going, instead works by instilling the story with an appropriate level of melancholy. It creates a delicate balance with Usnavi both reflecting on his past as an older man and looking to the future as his younger self struggles to find his way.
Usnavi also is trying to strike up a romance with Vanessa, Melissa Barrera, a salon worker whose dreams of becoming a downtown fashion designer are a little closer to home. Despite their seemingly mutual unrequited attraction to the other, each want vastly different things for their future, a messy and relatable obstacle of any relationship, that they will have to somehow reconcile should they decide to try to be together. Their dynamic gives the film its heart with each performer hitting all the right notes when the film needs them to. It is unfortunate that some of the other characters don’t get as many moments to fully realize their characters, even as they still give it their all.
There is Nina, Leslie Grace, who is returning home fresh off of her first year at Stanford and uncertain if she wants to return. She is caught between being vastly unhappy due to the racism she experiences at the school and the collective pressure of a community that has held her up as a success story. This comes most proximally from her father, Jimmy Smits, an immigrant who has managed to build a moderately successful car service that he seems willing to liquidate to support his daughter. Working as a dispatcher at said business is Benny, Corey Hawkins, who begins to rekindle a relationship with Nina that he hopes can be something more.
All of these storylines, some better served than others, see their temperatures continue to increase as the actual heat around them peaks. Unfortunately, despite the long running time, there are many moments where the film struggles to establish fully realized storylines for the full ensemble. As a consequence, growth and development for many of the characters ends up falling by the wayside. As the film reaches its conclusion, It becomes glaring that we won’t find out what happened to many of the people we have gotten to know. Their lives may have taken different paths, though the story seems to forget about them or, perhaps worse, it doesn’t care to show them to us. Considering how much time and energy is given to Miranda himself, who appears in a sideshow role as essentially a running gag, it does become disappointing when the screen time isn’t utilized more wisely.
With that in mind, the film does show us much that is rather remarkable. There are many well constructed musical numbers — large and small — that sing in a way that recalls some of the vision of musicals like West Side Story while still being all their own. The cast, many of whom are from the stage production with actual singing talent, ensure that the songs and constructed setpieces really pop. Whether it is seeing the cast take to the streets in huge musical numbers or splash around in an enormous pool, these moments are all thoroughly well put together. The film also utilizes the medium to achieve near magical realism sequences, including turning the camera nearly on its head for a scene on the side of a building, that really captures the imagination.
However, what made for the most arresting visual sequence is one that is also its most subtle. It sees Abuela Claudia alone and recalling her past in a dreamlike world in what proves to be a moment proceeding tragedy. Merediz is simply phenomenal in these moments as she moves through time and space just as it moves through her.
To say more would be to tip off what the moment means, for not just her but for Usnavi’s journey throughout the film. As his journey is forever altered by this moment, so too is the overall narrative. The story begins to move in a new direction as some of the more challenging aspects of life, notably an acknowledgement of the precarity of certain characters’ immigration status, all comes rushing in. It isn’t made the focus though it does show how even with all the fanciful moments of song and dance, there are moments of genuine depth about what this community is facing. It is the moments like these that makes In the Heights stand out as something quite special.
In the Heights is available in theaters and on HBO Max.