Based upon the stage musical "In The Heights"
Book by Quiara Alegria Hudes
Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Screenplay Written by Quiara Alegria Hudes
Directed by Jon M. Chu
**** (four stars)
RATED PG 13
Wondrous!!!
What a time we live in, here in the 21st century, currently a period fraught with considerable tension, malice, inconsiderateness, insensitivity, selfishness, avarice, and purposeful cruelty, exacerbating the turbulence of our social/economic/political landscape and or collective national health and survival. It is a horrific time, one that has compartmentalized us from each other, whether physically, ideologically and spiritually. Honestly, now that we live in a world where empirical facts are questioned, nuance is non-existent as perceptions and beliefs have become so unforgivably binary.
And then, there is the matter of race.
Never in my lifetime have I been a witness to acts of racism presented in such a severely overt manner.. It is the blatant inhumanity that is most hurtful. The cruelly willful inability to even try to honestly see the shared humanity between an individual, ethnic group or community that is different than the dominant White culture only further works to compartmentalize, reducing full human beings to fear based fantasy, disabling any ability to see each other properly and completely.
It is such an exceedingly dark, grim period and just in time, here arrives a blinding ball of sunshine in the form of Jon M. Chu's "In The Heights," his deliriously joyous, visually luxurious, deeply felt adaptation of the Tony Award winning musical drama by Quiara Alegria Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda. While I am one that typically rejects any and everything that smacks of a certain forced merriment, "In The Heights," for all of its splendor, is cemented with a truthful gravitas and palpable respect and affection for the lives, experiences and souls of the people it is clearly celebrating.
As with the stage musical, Jon M. Chu's "In The Heights," is centered around the collective of characters who reside in the predominantly Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights of Upper Manhattan in New York City. The magnetic Anthony Ramos stars as Usnavi de la Vega, our film's narrator as well as the nearly 30 year old owner of the neighborhood bodega who dreams of returning to his native Dominican Republic in order to resurrect his late Father's business.
Through Usnavi, we meet his teenage cousin Sonny de la Vega (Gregory Diaz IV), who works at the bodega and is undocumented; "Abuela" Claudia (Olga Merediz), the elderly neighborhood matriarch who raised Usnavi after the passing of his parents; Kevin Rosario (Jimmy Smits), owner of the local taxi company plus his daughter, troubled and homesick Stanford University student Nina (Leslie Grace); Usnavi's best friend Benny (Corey Hawkins), who is also Kevin's employee and Nina's neighborhood boyfriend; Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega), who owns the neighborhood saloon and her employees Carla (Stephanie Beatriz), Cuca (Dascha Polanco) and aspiring fashion designer Vanessa Morales (Melissa Barrera), upon whom Usnavi harbors a long standing unrequited crush; and finally, The Piraguero (Lin-Manuel Miranda), whose piragua business is threatened by the arrival of a Mister Softee truck.
As Usnavi weaves his story, we are all given a front row seat into the hopes and dreams of a community and its people, especially when faced with life challenges (a lengthy blackout in a sweltering summer) and greater tribulations (gentrification, financial struggles, feelings of displacement) and as told via a bounty of vigorously high spirited songs and musical sequences.
With regards to the movie musical, Jon M. Chu's "In The Heights" is a flat out winner from end to end. It is a dynamically energetic and beautifully first rate production propelled by Lin-Manuel Miranda's outstanding songs, the absolutely dazzling choreography by Christopher Scott, the luscious Cinematography by Alice Brooks and unquestionably the inventive, supremely warm, succulent direction by Chu, who guided his extraordinary cast to glory to a wealth of riches in performances, singing and dancing.
Despite the varying genres of the actual songs, which range freely from selections heavily fused through salsa, hip-hop, and freestyle rap, for instance, "In The Heights" exists as much as a classic Hollywood musical as Gene Kelly and Stanley Donan's "Singin' In The Rain" (1952). The film positively soars with its stupendous opening salvo "In The Heights," the downright electrifying "The Club" which itself is immediately followed by technicolored skyrockets of "Blackout," and, without question, a spectacular Busby Berkeley styled sequence set at a public swimming pool ("$96,000").
Elegant visual effects richly enhance the proceedings within "It Won't Be Long Now," as Vanessa dreams of a life as a fashion designer as the sky above her unfurls in lush fabrics and most vibrantly in a literally gravity defying ballet between Benny and Nina in "When The Sun Goes Down."
But, where Chu's film and Lin-Manuel Miranda's songs speak their most impressive volumes are selections that speak directly from the inner lives of the characters with all of their wishes, frustrations, regrets, fears, failures and triumphs--precisely the very best songs that make our most beloved musicals so memorable and cherished, as we are seeing souls become music.
With "No Me Diga" and the aforementioned, "It Won't Be Long Now," respectively, I loved witnessing the inner turmoil and parallel stories of both Nina and Vanessa, two young women with equally conflicting viewpoints of leaving their beloved neighborhood, venturing outwards from that security and questioning whether they are meant for a world outside of their own. The film's emotional peaks arrive as the characters fall into sorrow, beginning with "Abuela" Claudia's elegiac musical soliloquy "Paciencia y Fe," and continuing through the choral "Alabanza" and then further through revitalization via the soaring "Carnval del Barrio."
What was so impressive to me was how Chu handled the extremely delicate balancing act of ensuring the pathos of the film and its characters remained so firmly intact while being filtered through the artifice of a musical with characters literally breaking into song. And again, the entire cast, so beautifully anchored by the sensational Anthony Ramos, absolutely all radiated from the screen, so obviously enraptured with the opportunity to tell the stories of their own culture and to do so with sheer joy.
It feels more than fitting that I have seen this film immediately after seeing Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's "Summer Of Soul (...or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)" as both films are impassioned, celebratory odes to the culture, community, communion of a people. And in its depiction of a neighborhood deep in the sweltering heat of summer, Chu's film also greatly recalled, of all things, Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing" (1989), which despite the brutal tragedy of its final sections, is an otherwise resplendent film overflowing with the natural joys and rhythms of life itself.
Yet, most of all, as "In The Heights" showcases a variety of people who emerge from the various communities and cultures which constitute Mexican, Puerto Rican, those from Dominican Republic, Afro-Cuban, and Afro-Latino/Latinx, all residing together within this one neighborhood, we are indeed receiving a story of the immigrant experience. To that end, we are all also witnessing how through the interconnectivity of cultures and generations, variations of the same immigrant experience has continued to play out over and again, most notably, through the conflict of balancing assimilation into the new culture while retaining the culture from which one has originated, which even then leads us to the greater issues of how different cultures thrive and survive within a greater national community that so often vilifies them.
Beautifully, "In The Heights" is decidedly not a film about cultural pain even though there are painful moments of doubt, failure, and tragedy. Chu has delivered an exceedingly humane film that boldly unveils a sheer resistance to the darkness of the world via the vitality and resilience of a community refusing to shadow its own collective light regardless of how determined the obstacles of life seem to wish to extinguish that light. And in that manner of representation and delivery, the messages of "In The Heights" are propulsive and paramount in its collective power, which so often can nearly raise you completely out of your seats through the dazzling grace of its energy and spirit.
Jon M. Chu's "In The Heights," is a feast for the eyes, ears, heart and soul fueled with performances filtered through sheer elation, sparkling choreography, singing and some truly elegant visual effect yet is grounded in an intergenerational story of a people and community, richly represented and presented with bountiful truth and humanity. It is a film wise enough to know that not every story needs to be littered with tragedy and tears while deftly ensuring the inherent human drama remains intact.
Sometimes, our stories necessitate being shared through the medium of uplift for it is so easy to fall into despair and holes so deep and ark that we are unable to see ourselves as we truly are, especially those of us in communities that are marginalized, discriminated against, abused and targeted. Stories of uplift or stories presented through uplift are designed to inspire. Not by any cliched sense of manufactured movie manipulation but through the act of being seen, being heard, being felt just as we are, therefore allowing us to see ourselves and inspire ourselves and hopefully, others outside of our respective communities will be able to see us as we are too.
As the variety of characters within "In The Heights," all armed with their respective struggles, obstacles and challenges are ultimately echoes of each other, we are asked to find those same echoes within ourselves as we all navigate life in this ever expanding and evolving nation of immigrants.
That is precisely what makes Jon M. Chu's "In The Heights" such a marvelous experience to behold as it is truth and resistance to darkness by way of song, dance, and the rich tapestry that exists within the familial bonds of a community. And it is also one of 2021's brightest and best films.
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