"In The Heights" Movie Review

 

Hi friends!

Sorry for the long break, I needed to take some time off to catch up on schoolwork. But, it's finally summer break - and I got a new, speedy laptop - which means the long awaited blog posts will be flooding in! 

A couple of weeks ago I watched the film In The Heights. I've been waiting for this one for quite some time. I love Lin-Manuel Miranda; his music in both Hamilton and Moana is absolutely incredible. When I heard In The Heights was being turned into a motion picture, I could not contain my excitement! And I'm proud and glad to say that I was definitely not disappointed. 

The film's previous release date was a year ago, but postponed due to the pandemic. Although some films were released directly to VOD due to theaters closing, if you wanted a film to kick off movies returning to the theater, I cannot find a film more fitting than In The Heights.

In The Heights musically tells the story of Usnavi, a bodega owner, and his difficult choice of closing his store and retiring to the Dominican Republic or staying in Washington Heights. From the first opening shot, my senses were bombarded with beautiful, colorful energy that continued for the next two hours. Although the 145-minute length may seem overwhelming, do not fear - all of it breezes right by, from the outlandish musical number in a New York City public pool, to a blackout sing-a-long. 

Every inch of joy each song contained was contagious, and you couldn't help but belt out with Leslie Grace in "Breathe," or dance along with Corey Hawkins in "When the Sun Goes Down." But Anthony Ramos definitely blew us all away (har har har!) as Usnavi, by keeping some of Lin-Manuel Miranda's original energy from the original Broadway cast, but still bringing some of his own personality and style to the table.

There's a certain type of magic you can feel when seeing live musical theater. They're ephemeral, and much more alive. However, translating that energy across a screen can be difficult. You can take the same script and make a whole new movie, but that's a whole different project. The songs are the same, even many of the actors could be the same, but it's a different medium with different story-telling properties and conventions. The translation isn't easy, and often doesn't work. I was so relieved watching In The Heights. Not only was the challenge of creating a Broadway musical into a movie defeated, but it was absolutely crushed with the strength of Thor's hammer. I was blown away through every second of this film.