{"id":9391,"date":"2024-11-30T11:54:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T16:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9391"},"modified":"2024-11-30T11:54:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T16:54:03","slug":"in-the-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/in-the-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In the Heights <\/strong>(2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 143 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (some language and suggestive references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jon M. Chu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Quiara Alegria Hudes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alice Brooks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 11, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Anthony Ramos, Melissa Barrera, Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins, Olga Merediz, Jimmy Smits, Gregory Diaz IV, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Stephanie Beatriz, Dascha Polanco, Noah Catala, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mateo Gomez, Marc Anthony, Patrick Page, Olivia Perez, Analia Gomez, Dean Vazquez, Mason Vazquez, Delia Ramos, Valentina, Chris Jackson, Susan Pourfar.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $30M (US)\/$45.2M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here it is, the first truly great cinematic experience of 2021! The musical In the Heights<\/strong>, an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s Tony-winning stage show, is a joyous celebration of Latinx culture in a magical place called Washington Heights. Well, it\u2019s magical to the good people who live there. It\u2019s a place of music and dreams. Every sound on the street is music to the ears. Everybody has a dream. A quote from Turbo comes to mind: \u201cNo dream is too big, and no dreamer too small.\u201d There\u2019s certainly nothing small about In the Heights<\/strong>. It\u2019s big on emotion and huge of heart. It\u2019s so big it threatens to spill off the screen at times.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The loosely plotted story, told to a group of children, mainly takes place over the three days prior to a blackout that leaves the residents of New York\u2019s Washington Heights without power, but not powerless. The storyteller is Usnavi de la Vega (Ramos, A Star Is Born), a bodega owner who dreams of returning to the Dominican Republic to reopen his late father\u2019s bar. He\u2019s in love with Vanessa (Barrera, Vida), a salon worker who wants to be a fashion designer. Nina (singer Grace), daughter of taxi company owner Kevin (Smits, NYPD Blue), is something of a local hero. She made it out of Washington Heights all the way to the West Coast to attend Stanford. An intelligent girl with a lot of potential, she returns home with no intention of returning. She claims it\u2019s for financial reasons, but obviously there\u2019s more to it. She resumes her romance with Benny (Hawkins, Straight Outta Compton), a dispatcher for her dad\u2019s company. Due to increased rent, salon owner Daniela (Vega, Wild Things) has to move her business out of the neighborhood to the Bronx.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Other characters include neighborhood matriarch Abuela (Merediz, Evita), Usnavi\u2019s teen cousin Sonny (Diaz, Vampires vs. the Bronx), graffiti artist \u201cGraffiti Pete\u201d (Catala) and gossipy salon girls Carla (Beatriz, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Cuca (Polanco, Orange Is the New Black).<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m about to make a confession that many will find shocking. I didn\u2019t care for Hamilton. I\u2019ll wait a moment to let it sink in. [Dramatic Pause] It\u2019s true. I tried watching the filmed version of the Broadway show last summer on Disney+ and could not get into it. I turned it off after 30 minutes or so. I don\u2019t know, maybe it\u2019d be different if I saw it live. In any event, I didn\u2019t know what to expect from In the Heights<\/strong>. I love musicals, but given my experience with Hamilton, I didn\u2019t want to get my hopes up only to be let down again. My worries were laid to rest about five minutes in (if that). It\u2019s fantastic!<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you like singing and dancing, In the Heights<\/strong> won\u2019t disappoint. Director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) does it old school with characters breaking into song and dance to express their feelings whether it\u2019s joy, love or sorrow. It all starts with Usnavi introducing the people in his neighborhood (\u201cIn the Heights\u201d) as he greets a brand new day from his corner of the world- his bodega. It\u2019s a sign of the great numbers to come. Two show-stoppers immediately come to mind. The first \u201c96,000\u201d comes on the heels of the revelation that a winning lottery ticket worth $96,000 was sold at Usnavi\u2019s store. Everybody in Washington Heights plays the lottery in hopes of winning big money. When the news of the potential windfall gets around the local swimming pool, everybody fantasizes about what they\u2019d do with the money. In a style resembling Busby Berkeley, hundreds of extras come together in a perfectly choreographed orgy of dancing, splashing and synchronized swimming. The other \u201cCarnaval del Barrio\u201d is initiated by Daniela trying to snap everybody out of their funk during a heat wave made worse by the blackout. WOW! It positively brims with joy and energy. That\u2019s one thing that\u2019s never in short supply here. In the Heights<\/strong> has enough energy for ten movies!<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s a touch of melancholy found in the notion of a neighborhood falling victim to gentrification, a blight that destroys close-knit communities brought together by their cultural commonalities. Businesses are being bought or forced out to bring in chain stores that will attract white upper-class millennials. This is what\u2019s happening to Washington Heights. In the Heights<\/strong> also touches on undocumented illegals and the challenges they face in getting a proper education. Thankfully, it doesn\u2019t dwell too long on real-world issues. Miranda had the good sense to remove a reference to Trump from \u201c96,000\u201d, substituting Tiger Woods\u2019 name instead.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the Heights<\/strong> contains great performances from a multi-talented, ethno-correct cast led by Ramos who shows he\u2019s got what it takes to be a leading man. Everybody does a fine job, but I\u2019d like to give a special shout-out to Merediz who reprises her role from the stage show. Her character Abuela (Spanish for \u201cgrandmother\u201d) is mother to the entire neighborhood. She\u2019s always at the ready with good advice and words of wisdom. It\u2019s a heartrending performance that culminates in a wistful number (\u201cPaciencia y Fe\u201d) where she recounts her past as a hard-working immigrant trying to make it in America. It involves riding vintage subway cars and walking through darkened stations. It foreshadows a tragic event that affects the entire neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the Heights<\/strong> is a big, colorful portrait of a beautiful culture painted on a canvas of a lively, music-filled New York neighborhood. The cinematography by Alice Brooks is simply gorgeous. There are images- e.g. silky fabrics spilling out of buildings, a couple dancing on the side of a building- that will stay with you forever. The choreography is flawless throughout. Check out the number in the dance club (\u201cThe Club\u201d). You get tired just looking at it. The music is a brilliant fusion of rap, hip-hop, salsa, meringue and traditional musical theater. I can\u2019t think of a single thing I don\u2019t like about In the Heights<\/strong>. It\u2019s the best film I\u2019ve seen all year.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Heights (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 143 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (some language and suggestive references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jon M. Chu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Quiara Alegria Hudes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alice Brooks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 11, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Anthony Ramos, Melissa Barrera, Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins, Olga Merediz, Jimmy Smits, Gregory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/In-the-Heights-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9573,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9391\/revisions\/9573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}