Quickie Review - Asserting you Dignity in Small Ways 'In The Heights'

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    I did not think it would be musical that would bring me out of a Global Pandemic induced writers block.  But it was the adaption of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony Award Winning In the Heights, directed by Jon Chu that inspired Itchy fingers and started fireworks to go off in my brain. 





    In the Heights is a simple story with over the top technique.  The story simply put is about those little dreams we all have.  Usnavi played by Anthony Ramos wants to see if the grass is greener in the Dominican Republic, Nina played by Leslie Grace is homesick for her neighborhood and community after being away at Stanford.  The setting of Washington Heights set in the overlarge city of New York, In the Heights is concentrated within a few blocks, which gives it a small town feel.  In the Heights is about gentrification, home, community and the immigration story, though, the stakes are relatively small, especially compared to it's movie cousins like West Side Story (1961) and Do The Right Thing (1989) which themes are as big and sweeping as their tone and form.  Compared to this, In the Heights might seem more trivial; with UsNavi trying to move from one Bodega to another, or Vanessa, played by Melissa Barrea, trying to move further down town.  I get the criticism that the movie may have forgotten to bring the drama, but I think that is the point, as Neighborhood Matriarch Abuela Claudia played by Olga Merediz (in an incredible performance)  says you have assert your dignity in small ways.  Washington Heights is about the Dreamers, politically and figuratively, they are not part of main wealth and prosperity of New York, it is the immigrant story of starting small and finding your place.  It's just with In the Heights, there is disconnect between form and theme.


     In the Heights will always go big when it gets the chance, and also when it doesn't need too.  And that is what I love about it.  After all, it's Broadway - belt it out or go home.  It's such a lush movie, it bursts with energy, colour and movement at all turns.  The disconnect between form and tone is one I can just wrap around me like a warm blanket.  I have been listening to the Heights soundtrack since I first saw the movie, and each song will conjure up a specific image from the movie and it makes me smile.  I had a similar experience after watching Miranda's other Tony Award Winning Broadway Musical Hamilton, even from just a screening of the production, image and music became completely intertwined.  Miranda likes big chords and repeated mixed melodies, so the dance moves stick in the brain.  With In the Heights director Jon Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, Step Up 2: The Streets) lets you see the world from each characters point of view with fluid cuts and fantasy sequences that open up the musical beyond the stage and the surrounding blocks of the Heights.  The dreams might seem small, but they are everything to The Heights inhabitants.  And it's those In the Heights' visuals that are sticking with me; like the 96, 000 where it is set at the local pool and feels like a modern Busby Berkley sequence, or Merediz singing the beautiful Paciencia Y Fe in a subway car where dancers move between Cuba and New York. It is a testament to Abuela Claudia: the immigrant experience the celebration and regret of a life lived.  Paciencia Y Fe is the most expensive sequence in the movie and it shows it is exquisite and will not leave my brain.  Chu constantly keeps the energy up with the editing and movement.  For it is what cinema is meant to do, even if the story doesn't exactly always keep up.  But it's one hell of a movie.



By Lindsay Wilkins

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