In the Heights (Film) Review
Look, I’m not going to pretend I knew about Lin-Manuel Miranda before he was cool. Who am I, the McElroy family? No, I found out about Lin the same time most of America started to hear about the blockbuster hit that was Hamilton. My wife was in instant fan. I took some convincing, but after listening to the soundtrack during a particularly long playthrough of Fallout 4, I was hooked. Next (from my perspective) came In the Heights, and I’ve been waiting for this movie for a long time, and not just because of that whole pandemic thing.
I don’t recommend judging a movie by its poster, but yeah, it’s as stylish as it appears.
And now it’s out! I saw this one last night in theaters, and in short, it was a blast. This film lulls you into a sense of calm for the first two and a half minutes or so before it cuts loose on a big, gorgeous, and intricately choreographed music number. And I mean intricate. It’s amazing the amount of effort that the ensemble cast is putting into background dances that the camera isn’t even focused on, and not just for one or two songs. This movie is all about big, beautiful musical set pieces, and I was keeping an eye on the dancers in the background to see if they kept reappearing song after song. As far as I can tell on my first watch-through, very few did. For real, check out the credited “Dancers” in the credits. There’s easily between 100 and 200 dancers, absolutely nailing it while the leads lip-synch (pretty well damn) to the songs (which are sung REALLY damn well.) A few years back when La La Land came out, I hoped it would revive the stylish Hollywood musical. In the Heights is proof that those movies are back, big on spectacle, and a joy to watch.
But the showmanship is only part of it. What about the characters? Are they fun? Are they easy to care about and identify with? Of course they are. Lin Manuel-Miranda wrote the original, and John Chu (director of Crazy Rich Asians) directed, giving each of the main cast wonderful moments in the spotlight. Full props also go to screenwriter Quiara Alegria Hudes, who took a stage musical and managed to make it look fully Nueva York in size on the big screen, while adding little character moments and details that were absent from the original, and trimming the original in places while keeping the story’s heart. I know some diehard fans are going to miss songs like “Inutil” and “Sunrise,” but as its own beast, the film feels like a compelling story for a pretty large cast of named characters, and the whole thing (pardon the metaphor) sings.
And ordinarily I’d give a shout-out here to my favorite cast members, but literally everyone on screen nailed it. No notes, just terrific across the board. There’s always a danger with a big movie that the actor will distract you from the performance. It’s hard to see Brad Pitt on screen and not be acutely aware it’s Brad Pitt. But this time, Warner Brothers chose lesser-known (for now, but not for long) actors who knew exactly what they were doing. It was the right call; again, no complaints.
If you’ve somehow missed Warner Brothers Blitzkrieg ad-campaign for this one, check out the trailer here.
It’s a gorgeous movie visually and musically, the characters are fun and memorable, and there are some added little details for Broadway fans that are great fun to find. There’s truly not much more to say about this one than that it is a pure delight. It’s streaming on HBOMax this month, but if you’ve been missing the movie theaters, this is a great reason to go back. 5 lottery tickets out of 5.