“Lights up on Washington Heights,” the opening lyrics to the magnificent new musical In the Heights, takes on a different meaning with its film release today. After a yearlong postponement, global audiences finally get to see this bright, poignant and infectiously catchy movie, and most people will get to do it on the big screen.
We, in Oakville, Halton and most parts of Ontario, can’t. But even with annoyingly expensive home rentals and on smaller screens, I’m overjoyed to say that In the Heights is the most fun I’ve had watching a movie in years.
I truly can’t remember the last time I smiled and audibly gasped so often at a Hollywood feature. This team up from Warner Brothers and superstar composer Lin-Manuel Miranda is a lot of fun, but the guidance that makes it all works is director Jon M. Chu (best known for Crazy Rich Asians) who’s led the team with gusto.
Based on the stage musical of the same name, the film depicts several interchanging events of a summer in New York’s Washington Heights. It’s about three businesses learning to adjust, about a community facing change, about recognizing what home really is and means to us, and it’s mostly about what it takes to make dreams (big or small) happen.
All of these are supercharged with 17 colossal musical numbers that fuse song, dance, rap, drama, and the technical prowess of film to make scene after dizzying scene. One reason it’s hard to summarize the plot is because the movie is dramatically different from its source material.
Other than the opening title song and the finale, none of the other songs appear in the same order as they do in the stage show. For those who know the play, don’t expect to know the order of events; film requires a different story structure than theatre because there’s no intermission and events move faster on camera.
Among the very few things out of place is how the style sometimes go too far. The settings, production design, props and lighting are heavily stylized.
It doesn’t always make sense, especially since the actors (both in casting and their performance) are so authentic, the exaggerated environment they’re in sometimes feels disconnected.
But this is such a small part of an otherwise eye-popping and enthusiastic movie. The best scenes and settings are when a balance between big-budget and soul of the real Washington Heights (where the movie was filmed) shine through. That’s not CGI on screen - it’s the real George Washington Bridge.
What makes it work is director Chu - he knows that audiences are experiencing this world and its characters differently in 2021 since the show premiered in 2008.
His adaptation (as is the screenplay from author Quiara Alegría Hudes) is heightened because of this retooling. Refocusing the conflict, for example, from the lottery ticket to the sudden closure or moving of the businesses sets up more choices every character in the ensemble has to make.
Chu is so attentive and such a good listener that we trust he and Hudes’ new story is worth following. But he still honours the details that makes In the Heights great. Like moving the camera in and out of the pool during the dance number “96,000” to match the vocal dynamics in the stage script? Brilliant!
I could write a graduate thesis about how great the actors are. All ten of the principal actors are so versatile in their vocal range, acting beats, and the fun they’re having telling the story pours off the screen. It’s a masterclass of what makes cinema memorable and makes you want to watch the movie again and again and again.
The cast is full of true triple threat entertainers, and there’s no time to praise them individually (though their names are at the end of this review.)
Above the others, Anthony Ramos’ leading man Usnavi is the headliner. He’s the narrator, leader, coach, and he navigates everyone’s stories that tie the barrio together. Ramos has had smaller parts before, (most memorably as Lady Gaga’s BFF in A Star is Born from a few years ago) but just you wait - this film will launch him to superstardom.
Songwriter and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is best known for his 2015 mega-hit Hamilton and the 2016 animated film Moana - but this was his first passion project seven years in the making, leading up to In the Heights’ broadway debut in February 2008.
Miranda grew up in Washington Heights, where he still lives with his family today. This is clearly his most personal work, though the story’s success can be attributed to Heights being more than just a love letter to home - it’s a testament to the power home can be no matter what yours is.
The film has themes and morals about the vibrancy that multiculturalism brings and what it takes to support it. But most of all its about how someone’s relationship to home changes and what it takes to really make some place a home. These themes of home, belonging and the dream you can make any place your home are universal.
In the Heights is and will be a landmark for Latino, Caribbean and Hispanic artists in Hollywood. It’s also an incredible party everyone is invited to, well worth watching this weekend for a fantastic night of entertainment.
Bring the “Carnival del Barrio” into your home - it’ll make your heart soar to new heights.
In the Heights
9 out of 10
PG, 2hrs 23mins. Musical Drama Epic.
Directed by Jon M. Chu.
Starring Anthony Ramos, Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins, Melissa Barrera, Jimmy Smits, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Olga Merediz, Gregory Diaz IV, Stephanie Beatriz and Lin Manuel-Miranda.
Now available for premium video rental on various services. Also playing at cinemas and drive-ins outside Halton Region.
One more thing for theatre nerds: you absolutely must stay for the post-credits scene. Piragua (Reprise) isn’t really important to the plot, but writer Miranda and Christopher Jackson’s cameos both return for the funniest song in the movie - it’s worth sticking around for.
