In the Heights finds that sweet spot where it's reverential to its own cultural background and open for anyone. The themes and conflicts of these people have specific touchstones to their community, like the threat of deportation and the encroachment of gentrification taking away their neighborhood, but the inner conflicts like feeling the pressure to succeed and questioning whether your dreams are practical are worries that anyone regardless of ethnic background can relate to.
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It's built upon the celebration of its specific, Latin-American heritage and culture but the movie is also constructed to be so accessible and welcoming to others to learn and join in. In the Heights succeeds through how relatable and specific it comes across, lovingly showcasing the diverse population of Washington Heights and the community that feels at home here. It's very easy to get swept away in the enthusiasm and energy of the movie, enough so that after the exemplary opening number setting up our characters, our setting, and our relationships and goals, people in my theater actually clapped, and I almost felt like joining them. This is such a positive and overwhelmingly optimistic story that it becomes infectious, a pleasing balm to sooth all that ails you.
Usnavi has been nursing a crush over Vanessa for ages, but will he finally make a move before leaving the country for good to return to the Caribbean? We follow the many faces of the neighborhood, like Abuela (Olga Merediz), who has helped raise everyone as a sweetly matronly figure, Nina (Leslie Grace), returning home from her first year at Stanford as the "girl who made something of herself," Benny (Corey Hawkins) who was in a relationship with Nina and is looking to work his way up as a cab dispatcher, Daniella (Daphne Rubin-Vega) who is moving her popular salon into another neighborhood, and Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), an aspiring fashion designer who dreams of relocating into Manhattan's fashion district. His young cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV) helps him stock the shelves and keep the family business going. Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) is a twenty-something bodega owner in New York City's Washington Heights neighborhood and dreaming about returning to his home in the Dominican Republic. In the Heights is an exuberantly joyous experience, one brimming with energy and good vibes and a warm-hearted welcome that serves as the best argument movie theaters can have to come back and experience the pleasures of the big screen with your friends and family. Well, dear reader, let me say what a monumental world of difference seeing the songs in their proper context, with character relationships, and the able performances of the actors can do for making the music come alive. Because of that musical dip, my expectations lowered slightly for the long-anticipated movie musical of In the Heights.
There were a handful of tracks where I thought it was nice but nothing grabbed me the way that Hamilton's soundtrack did from the very start.
I had never heard the music before and I found that, over the course of a couple hours, little of it stuck with me. Weeks ago, I listened to the original Tony Award-winning 2008 Broadway recording for In the Heights, the first major musical by multi-hyphenate artistic virtuoso, Lin-Manuel Miranda.