In the Heights (2021)

Film: In the Heights (2021)

Stars: Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rube-Vega, Jimmy Smits, Lin-Manuel Miranda

Director: Jon M. Chu

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Lin-Manuel Miranda has become such an omnipresent global superstar in the past few years, it'd be easy to just sort of assume that he popped out-of-nowhere with Hamilton, but Hamilton was actually the long-gestating creative followup to the Tony-winning In the Heights, Miranda's first major Broadway success.  I know I'm a bit behind on this one (if you still haven't seen it yet, it might be something you're going to have to wait to stream unless your dollar theaters have reopened), but I wanted to get on-record my thoughts on one of the summer's better musicals, albeit one that flamed out at the box office.  I also think it's an interesting discussion on Miranda & the movie industry's responsibility to bring diverse films to audiences...but for audiences to recognize those movies when they come about.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Usnavi (Ramos), who runs a bodega in Washington Heights (where the title comes from), and is madly in love with Vanessa (Barrera), an aspiring fashion designer who wants to move downtown.  Their courtship is happening concurrently with Nina (Grace) returning from Stanford, but missing her home & not being able to fit in (and also missing her crush Benny, played by Hawkins).  We spend most of the first half of the film focused on getting to know the complicated relationships between these four people, as well as Washington Heights (this is definitely a "New York is a character" musical), before a giant blackout that lasts for days in the Heights (in the hot summer) causes a shift in perspective from all four main characters, essentially setting them on course to not only remain in love, but also to find an appreciation for their neighborhood, which is slowly being assimilated (and all find ways to help fight that assimilation).

The movie is littered, as you can imagine, with wonderful songs.  It has become a popular internet pastime to mock Lin-Manuel Miranda (for reasons that feel specious...the internet occasionally just wants to tear down everyone & even if there are some parts of Hamilton that might not be as forward-thinking as they should, I struggle to feel this is the enemy to be focusing our ire at), but I am a fan, and I think this music still has an energy & quality that works.  Particularly the titular "In the Heights" and the bouncing "96,000" just sing offscreen-stage musicals sometimes struggle with transitioning to the big-screen, but In the Heights doesn't remotely suffer from this, expanding quickly into the neighborhood & using excess space to tell the story in a way most Tony-winning movies couldn't remotely aspire.

The film's box office, though, tells a different story, as In the Heights bombed.  This could, to some degree, be blamed on the pandemic-people have been apprehensive about going back to the movies as the vaccine rollout stagnates in the US, and certainly there have been more bombs than hits this summer.  But it's worth asking if this film would've made it otherwise.  It's long, and I'd say too long; the length of a stage play & the energy that it brings is much, much different than a movie, not just because you spent 10x as much for the ticket but also because a theatrical experience is more involved.  The movie could use some trimming, as its plot is, well, thin when you take out the effervescence of the musical numbers-it's an important story, and tackles some serious issues (particularly around immigration and racial equity), but the actual central storyline between Usnavi & Vanessa is weak sauce, particularly the reasons for their fight.

But long movies succeed all the time-I think we need to take the look back at ourselves on this one.  After a decade of Hollywood being hounded about representation, the movie industry came out with something that the public had been begging for: a diverse, quality, high-budget film featuring talented young people of color, and created by arguably the most famous Latino man in America.  The fact that it bombed isn't on Hollywood, in my opinion-it's on us-if we want to see diverse voices in entertainment, when Hollywood actually delivers, we need to show up.  Speaking as a gay man who gets, at most, 1-2 major LGBT films a year from the studios, I know that you have to put butts in the seats to continue to get more diversity in your movies.  Hopefully Hollywood continues to invest, and hopefully audiences learned their lessons here.  Because if all we're going to see are sequels & remakes with predominantly white actors (which is, it has to be said, what most of this summer's success stories have been at the movies), than that's what we're going to get.