In the Heights
Year: 2021
Director: Jon M. Chu
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins & Anthony Ramos
Runtime: 143 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 31/05/23
Director: Jon M. Chu
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins & Anthony Ramos
Runtime: 143 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 31/05/23
For most theatre fans, the name Lin Manuel Miranda is one synonymous with some of the most beloved works of the twenty-first century, most notably Hamilton. But Miranda’s first Broadway musical was In the Heights in 2008, and it shot him into the fame stratosphere seemingly overnight. The rights to a film were quickly snapped up but following a number of delays it didn’t see the light of day until just after the COVOD-19 pandemic in 2021. A monumental box office bomb, In the Heights suffered from a combination of COVID hangover symptoms, and it releasing day and date on streaming as it did in theatres. But it seemed to be a hit with critics, but I famously have a bone to pick with Miranda’s material, so will In the Heights prove me wrong or will my low expectations be justified?
Set in Washington Heights, New York, the story follows a number of members of the predominantly Dominican population as they come to terms with significant changes being made to their neighbourhood.
Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) is the owner of a convenience store with dreams of returning to the Dominican Republic and re-opening his deceased father’s bar; Nina (Leslie Grace) is returning home from her first semester at Stanford University and is considering dropping out; Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) is trying to move to a downtown apartment; Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega) is relocating her beauty salon; and the whole community is in a stir following a winning lottery ticket worth ninety-eight-thousand dollars being sold from Usnavi’s store; all whilst New York experiences a heatwave that threatens the power grid to the Heights.
Set in Washington Heights, New York, the story follows a number of members of the predominantly Dominican population as they come to terms with significant changes being made to their neighbourhood.
Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) is the owner of a convenience store with dreams of returning to the Dominican Republic and re-opening his deceased father’s bar; Nina (Leslie Grace) is returning home from her first semester at Stanford University and is considering dropping out; Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) is trying to move to a downtown apartment; Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega) is relocating her beauty salon; and the whole community is in a stir following a winning lottery ticket worth ninety-eight-thousand dollars being sold from Usnavi’s store; all whilst New York experiences a heatwave that threatens the power grid to the Heights.
Clocking in at two hours and twenty minutes, In the Heights is overly long and suffers from an identity crisis. How? Well it has the wrong main character for a start, and on top of that it is constantly wasting time with plot points and characters that almost always go nowhere.
In the Heights is a story about a community suffering an identity crisis in the form of gentrification forcing out the pillars of the community. Nina’s story is about her crisis of identity following her acceptance into a prestigious educational institution where her peers are predominantly rich white people. This is not Usnavi’s story, no matter how much the plot revolves entirely around his desire to leave New York for the Dominican Republic, this is Nina’s story about discovering the woman she was born to be through witnessing the struggles of her family and friends and using her privilege to help them.
Usnavi is not a particularly interesting or compelling main character, no matter how much Ramos’ performance tries to elevate it. His internal conflict is entirely of his own creation by refusing to acknowledge that the Heights are his home and not the Dominican Republic. His romantic struggles with Vanessa are entirely of his own doing because he allows himself to become a spectator of his own life, and then blame those around him for his missing out of what he wants.
He’s whiny, and the resolution his story comes to is not of his own action but rather the consequences of other people’s stories manifesting in him having an epiphany of sorts. He’s perfectly suitable for the role of a supporting character who doesn’t get much development, but as the leading character and narrator of the story it becomes painfully tedious watching this man be pushed through the story by other characters and acting as though all of this was his doing.
Nina on the other hand is a compelling main character. Her dilemma is genuine, it brings in the factor of racial disadvantage and stigmatism in nuanced ways without having it be in your face as would be the easy option.
The strained relationship she has with her father (Jimmy Smits) is really engrossing thanks to his position as a pillar of the community and need to be seen as providing his daughter with the best she can possibly get at the cost of his hard work.
Her Rocky relationship with Benny (Corey Hawkins) because of the community’s need to see her grow and escape this mundane life in the Heights, and his lack of interest in being anywhere else.
She’s a force of a woman and to see her relegated to third or fourth billing of story priority is painful and massively detrimental to the overall story. Even more so when you factor in the excellent performance that Grace provides, she really is the heart and soul of this film and it’s a shame to see her minimised in this way.
In the Heights is a story about a community suffering an identity crisis in the form of gentrification forcing out the pillars of the community. Nina’s story is about her crisis of identity following her acceptance into a prestigious educational institution where her peers are predominantly rich white people. This is not Usnavi’s story, no matter how much the plot revolves entirely around his desire to leave New York for the Dominican Republic, this is Nina’s story about discovering the woman she was born to be through witnessing the struggles of her family and friends and using her privilege to help them.
Usnavi is not a particularly interesting or compelling main character, no matter how much Ramos’ performance tries to elevate it. His internal conflict is entirely of his own creation by refusing to acknowledge that the Heights are his home and not the Dominican Republic. His romantic struggles with Vanessa are entirely of his own doing because he allows himself to become a spectator of his own life, and then blame those around him for his missing out of what he wants.
He’s whiny, and the resolution his story comes to is not of his own action but rather the consequences of other people’s stories manifesting in him having an epiphany of sorts. He’s perfectly suitable for the role of a supporting character who doesn’t get much development, but as the leading character and narrator of the story it becomes painfully tedious watching this man be pushed through the story by other characters and acting as though all of this was his doing.
Nina on the other hand is a compelling main character. Her dilemma is genuine, it brings in the factor of racial disadvantage and stigmatism in nuanced ways without having it be in your face as would be the easy option.
The strained relationship she has with her father (Jimmy Smits) is really engrossing thanks to his position as a pillar of the community and need to be seen as providing his daughter with the best she can possibly get at the cost of his hard work.
Her Rocky relationship with Benny (Corey Hawkins) because of the community’s need to see her grow and escape this mundane life in the Heights, and his lack of interest in being anywhere else.
She’s a force of a woman and to see her relegated to third or fourth billing of story priority is painful and massively detrimental to the overall story. Even more so when you factor in the excellent performance that Grace provides, she really is the heart and soul of this film and it’s a shame to see her minimised in this way.
The story is extremely bloated too, which lends nicely to the overlong runtime. There’s a major storyline that’s followed for a decent chunk of the first act regarding this winning lottery ticket that Usnavi has sold, and almost every character gets to weigh in on it in some way. But it just disappears entirely for the second act and then briefly rears its head once more at the film’s narrative climax to be a Deus ex machina for a character in need.
But there’s also Daniela’s story which I feel isn’t explored as thoroughly as it could have been. She runs the local beauty salon which is having to uproot and set up a new shop a few blocks away because the space it currently occupies has been bought out by a higher bidder (one we are led to believe is not of a minority group, contributing to the gentrification of the area). This is a great little side story that runs parallel to Nina and her father as it deals with a lot of the same themes just in a different context. Daniela and her staff are fighting against change that they feel powerless to combat, the outcome of which will affect the entire Latin-American community in the Heights. This isn’t to say that Daniela’s story is lacklustre in the same way the lottery storyline is, but it could have been given a bit more meat on the bones to really explore losing a pillar of the community such as her and the service she provides. Then again, had the film been significantly shorter, then Daniela’s story as it stands would have been perfectly sufficient.
As I always say, a good musical either lives or dies by the quality of its musical numbers. The songs need to be hits, and the choreography needs to be on point. In the Heights does mostly succeed here, however it does suffer from the curse of Lin Manuel-Miranda. That curse being that he is an incredibly talented man who has only ever written one song, and just repeated that song ad-infinitum and people seem to lap it up. So, if you have heard Hamilton, Moana, or Encanto, then you’ve heard In the Heights. What In the Heights has going for it that those other films don’t though is the choreography, because this is a full-blown musical for film which none of the other previously mentioned projects are.
Sequences like ‘No Mi Diga’ in Daniela’s salon, or ‘96000’ at the public pool are stunners, and they aren’t the only ones. Everything is infused with Latin style, making everything flow smoothly and with just a bit of sex appeal. It’s exciting, and the musical sequences are by far the best part of the film. That said, I would rather exclusively watch these sections than subject myself to watching the entire In the Heights film again.
In the Heights may have excellent musical numbers, and the performances from Ramos and Grace in particular desperately try to lift the saggy and unfocused story up to be more enjoyable than it could possibly be. Stage musicals need to be around two and a half hours long to justify even putting them on, but all good film adaptations of stage shows’ know what to cut out in order to make the story snappier, flow more organically, and just work better for a more passive medium. In the Heights neglects this for a near full-fat experience; this is sure to please some purists, but for the average audience member this is sure to result in lapses in concentration and frustration at the story never being able to set its sights on any particular goal. In the Heights had promise, but it sullies its best assets by hiding them behind elements that are either less interesting or straight up don’t work.
But there’s also Daniela’s story which I feel isn’t explored as thoroughly as it could have been. She runs the local beauty salon which is having to uproot and set up a new shop a few blocks away because the space it currently occupies has been bought out by a higher bidder (one we are led to believe is not of a minority group, contributing to the gentrification of the area). This is a great little side story that runs parallel to Nina and her father as it deals with a lot of the same themes just in a different context. Daniela and her staff are fighting against change that they feel powerless to combat, the outcome of which will affect the entire Latin-American community in the Heights. This isn’t to say that Daniela’s story is lacklustre in the same way the lottery storyline is, but it could have been given a bit more meat on the bones to really explore losing a pillar of the community such as her and the service she provides. Then again, had the film been significantly shorter, then Daniela’s story as it stands would have been perfectly sufficient.
As I always say, a good musical either lives or dies by the quality of its musical numbers. The songs need to be hits, and the choreography needs to be on point. In the Heights does mostly succeed here, however it does suffer from the curse of Lin Manuel-Miranda. That curse being that he is an incredibly talented man who has only ever written one song, and just repeated that song ad-infinitum and people seem to lap it up. So, if you have heard Hamilton, Moana, or Encanto, then you’ve heard In the Heights. What In the Heights has going for it that those other films don’t though is the choreography, because this is a full-blown musical for film which none of the other previously mentioned projects are.
Sequences like ‘No Mi Diga’ in Daniela’s salon, or ‘96000’ at the public pool are stunners, and they aren’t the only ones. Everything is infused with Latin style, making everything flow smoothly and with just a bit of sex appeal. It’s exciting, and the musical sequences are by far the best part of the film. That said, I would rather exclusively watch these sections than subject myself to watching the entire In the Heights film again.
In the Heights may have excellent musical numbers, and the performances from Ramos and Grace in particular desperately try to lift the saggy and unfocused story up to be more enjoyable than it could possibly be. Stage musicals need to be around two and a half hours long to justify even putting them on, but all good film adaptations of stage shows’ know what to cut out in order to make the story snappier, flow more organically, and just work better for a more passive medium. In the Heights neglects this for a near full-fat experience; this is sure to please some purists, but for the average audience member this is sure to result in lapses in concentration and frustration at the story never being able to set its sights on any particular goal. In the Heights had promise, but it sullies its best assets by hiding them behind elements that are either less interesting or straight up don’t work.