IN THE HEIGHTS
****
Director: Jon M. Chu
Screenplay: Quiara Alegría Hudes, based on the musical stage play, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, book by Quiara Alegría Hudes and concept by Miranda.
Principal cast:
Anthony Ramos
Melissa Barrera
Leslie Grace
Corey Hawkins
Olga Merediz
Jimmy Smits
Country: USA
Classification: PG
Runtime: 143 mins.
Australian release date: 24 June 2021.
Jon M. Chu, the director of 2018’s highly successful Crazy Rich Asians, has delivered his latest work, the high energy musical In The Heights, based on the eponymous stage show by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes. The musical was a huge success on Broadway when it opened in 2008, winning four Tony Awards including Best Musical. Now, its transformation from stage to screen brings this joyous celebration of Latino culture to cinemas around the globe.
Set over three days in the predominantly Dominican neighbourhood of Washington Heights on the northern tip of Manhattan Island, the film opens with a clever rap song (In the Heights) that sets the scene for what follows. From that opening number Chu takes the audience on a vibrant, pulsating, energetic ride featuring terrific music, brilliant choreography and flamboyant dance routines. He also incorporates the occasional animation sequence into his well-directed and edited musical extravaganza, which introduces us to Usnavi (Anthony Ramos from A Star Is Born and the Broadway production of Hamilton), a young man dreaming of returning to the Dominican Republic to take over his deceased father’s business. As he talks about his sueñito – his little dream - to a group of children, we are transported to the streets of Washington Heights where the action plays out. There we encounter Usnavi’s unrequited love interest Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), his friend Benny (Corey Hawkins) and college student Nina (Leslie Grace), Benny’s girlfriend, her father Kevin (Jimmy Smits), and the woman who raised Usnavi after the death of his mother, ‘Abuela’ Claudia (Olga Merediz). All of these people have aspirations and dreams of their own, along with pretty much everyone else in ‘the Heights’, it seems. Indeed, the entire barrio wants to show the world that they “are not invisible”. As these individual stories intertwine and connect, we are shown, and learn, about the importance of their Latino heritage to each of these characters, whether they come from Puerto Rico, Cuba or the Dominican Republic. Their cultural roots are what drives them.
In The Heights features a cast of thousands, as they used to say of Hollywood epics. One scene, filmed around the pool at the Highbridge Play Center [sic], used 500 extras and it shows. It looks like it’s from a Busby Berkeley movie, complete with aerial shots of synchronised swimmers! That’s just one of many large-scale song-and-dance numbers that drive the action - in fact, true to its theatrical origins, the story is largely told through song lyrics rather than the spoken word. The attractive key performers and huge ensemble cast are uniformly talented, whether they be acting, singing or dancing. The composer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, crops up, too, as a piragüero, a guy who sells ice confections (he played Usnavi in the original musical).
One of the themes of In The Heights is to “make the most of what you’ve got” and the film certainly does that. In fact, it could be accused of having too much of what it’s got because, at almost two-and-a-half hours, it runs a little long and begins to exhaust the audience by the end. Nevertheless, this is a powerful, thoroughly enjoyable, story of Latino excellence and a community of people who, after decades of being treated like second-class citizens, has come to realise that it doesn’t have to be like any other section of society because it has its own unique, and extraordinarily rich, deep well of culture to draw upon. How good is that?
Screenplay: Quiara Alegría Hudes, based on the musical stage play, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, book by Quiara Alegría Hudes and concept by Miranda.
Principal cast:
Anthony Ramos
Melissa Barrera
Leslie Grace
Corey Hawkins
Olga Merediz
Jimmy Smits
Country: USA
Classification: PG
Runtime: 143 mins.
Australian release date: 24 June 2021.
Jon M. Chu, the director of 2018’s highly successful Crazy Rich Asians, has delivered his latest work, the high energy musical In The Heights, based on the eponymous stage show by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes. The musical was a huge success on Broadway when it opened in 2008, winning four Tony Awards including Best Musical. Now, its transformation from stage to screen brings this joyous celebration of Latino culture to cinemas around the globe.
Set over three days in the predominantly Dominican neighbourhood of Washington Heights on the northern tip of Manhattan Island, the film opens with a clever rap song (In the Heights) that sets the scene for what follows. From that opening number Chu takes the audience on a vibrant, pulsating, energetic ride featuring terrific music, brilliant choreography and flamboyant dance routines. He also incorporates the occasional animation sequence into his well-directed and edited musical extravaganza, which introduces us to Usnavi (Anthony Ramos from A Star Is Born and the Broadway production of Hamilton), a young man dreaming of returning to the Dominican Republic to take over his deceased father’s business. As he talks about his sueñito – his little dream - to a group of children, we are transported to the streets of Washington Heights where the action plays out. There we encounter Usnavi’s unrequited love interest Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), his friend Benny (Corey Hawkins) and college student Nina (Leslie Grace), Benny’s girlfriend, her father Kevin (Jimmy Smits), and the woman who raised Usnavi after the death of his mother, ‘Abuela’ Claudia (Olga Merediz). All of these people have aspirations and dreams of their own, along with pretty much everyone else in ‘the Heights’, it seems. Indeed, the entire barrio wants to show the world that they “are not invisible”. As these individual stories intertwine and connect, we are shown, and learn, about the importance of their Latino heritage to each of these characters, whether they come from Puerto Rico, Cuba or the Dominican Republic. Their cultural roots are what drives them.
In The Heights features a cast of thousands, as they used to say of Hollywood epics. One scene, filmed around the pool at the Highbridge Play Center [sic], used 500 extras and it shows. It looks like it’s from a Busby Berkeley movie, complete with aerial shots of synchronised swimmers! That’s just one of many large-scale song-and-dance numbers that drive the action - in fact, true to its theatrical origins, the story is largely told through song lyrics rather than the spoken word. The attractive key performers and huge ensemble cast are uniformly talented, whether they be acting, singing or dancing. The composer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, crops up, too, as a piragüero, a guy who sells ice confections (he played Usnavi in the original musical).
One of the themes of In The Heights is to “make the most of what you’ve got” and the film certainly does that. In fact, it could be accused of having too much of what it’s got because, at almost two-and-a-half hours, it runs a little long and begins to exhaust the audience by the end. Nevertheless, this is a powerful, thoroughly enjoyable, story of Latino excellence and a community of people who, after decades of being treated like second-class citizens, has come to realise that it doesn’t have to be like any other section of society because it has its own unique, and extraordinarily rich, deep well of culture to draw upon. How good is that?