In The Heights | Warner Bros.

[Schlosser85]

My ex roommate loves the music from this.

 

[Melpardus]

"Breathe" is a way too relatable anthem for pretty much every 1st gen and/or low income college student, dare I say especially POCs.

 

[JP]

In the 10 years I've been listening to the cast recording, I find I always start relating to a new song/character. Ugh, I love this show.

 

[Melpardus]

Damn, this thread really hasn't been touched in over a year. Figured it'd be bumped by now since the movie's finally out. Anyway, here's my thoughts...

Non-spoiler tl;dr: As someone who knows the story via playing the music for it a couple years back for a local production and that turning me into a fan of the show, I gotta say I was pretty disappointed despite aspects of it being enjoyable within a vacuum, and if I had to give a number rating, I'd say 6/10.

Spoiler

First and foremost, gotta address the casting discussion, because that seems to be the biggest conversation about the movie at this point. In case you happen to not know despite being on this thread, Washington Heights is an actual place in Upper Manhattan where most of the people are Latine, specifically Dominican and Puerto Rican, and even more specifically Afro Latine (which I didn't know until recently, which is why it didn't really click for me back when the casting was first being announced). I haven't actually been there myself but from my own experience in Spanish Harlem combined with all accounts of Washington Heights, in both places dark-skinned black folks are commonplace to the point that someone who looks like me can walk down the street and just be assumed to be a part of the Spanish-speaking neighborhood. There's definitely black people in In the Heights but they're almost all background dancers; there's only one or two among the decently large speaking cast and they're both in the light-skinned/ambiguous-looking category (not counting Corey Hawkins as Benny, the film's only dark-skinned black character and who is specifically written as being African American). So that's an oof, and the reactions to this criticism -- aside from Lin-Manuel Miranda's own apology, which seemed sincere enough even though I still have critiques of him -- from the director and some of the cast and some famous white Latine names are further big oofs. (Plus Bill Maher, being his increasingly gross and out-of-touch self.)

Casting aside, wasn't as strong of a story as I thought it would be. The film took out some of the better plot and character-relevant songs ("Inútil", "Sunrise", and "Hundreds of Stories" most notably), changed the order of some things in a way that made the story weaker (which most affected everything regarding Abuela Claudia, even though the new take on "Paciencia y Fe" was nice in its own way), and removed the colorism/racism discussion that the stage show actually did have. Benny and Nina are more or less relegated to secondary characters with no real mutual arc since their romantic connection is implied to be an old thing they're sort of rekindling, but it has no substance since so much of their story was just cut from the film -- hell, Nina's mom is dead in this version and that has no bearing on anything story-wise. It's just overall very jarring because so many of the deeper and grittier aspects of the story and characterizations were removed so it feels like a sanitized PG-13 Disney movie -- there's a whole countdown to the blackout but the "Blackout" itself isn't presented as anything more than a very minor inconvenience, which completely ruined the whole fireworks mantra -- yet the movie is, I think, longer than the stage show itself (including intermission) and there's not a lot for you to really get invested in. The DREAMers plot line they added was actually underwritten and really felt tacked on because it doesn't come up until the beginning of the last 1/3 of the film. The ending reveal of the framing device was cute, I'll admit, but it's done in a way that really minimizes most of the cast aside from Usnavi and Vanessa.

On some positive notes, I'm not a choreography/dance buff but it was good here, I think. I overall enjoyed how they adapted the musical numbers to a realistic city setting, and the music itself was different enough from the original to have its own feel -- lots of timbale and overall bass boosted by like 200% -- though a few of the songs were lacking little touches that I was looking forward to hearing. ("Benny's Dispatch" comes to mind; there's a synth riff in the original that doesn't get used in the movie.) Everyone played their roles very well, even if many of them didn't have a lot of material to actually work with, and the post-credits scene (yes, there's a post-credits scene that doesn't quite make chronological sense) still made me laugh.

So eh. Glad I didn't end up actually spending money on it. Stage show was overall better, even if I've never actually seen it.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Great review. I haven’t seen the stage show either and I don’t know enough about it to comment on what was changed or not. But to me, this was just kind of and okay musical with some decent songs and a few likable characters. But there were also some unlikable ones… trash collecting fashion designer girl was so boring and I gathered that the only reason Usnavi was obsessed with her was because she’s pretty. What is their connection? They barely seem to have one. Also,

Spoiler

the other female lead coming to the conclusion that she’s going to go back to Stanford to MAGICALLY SOLVE IMMIGRATION SOMEDAY had me totally facepalm. Like, seriously? Yeah, okay. Democrats have been trying to thwart the GOP’s racism and fearmongering against immigrants and refugees for years but somehow this idealistic young woman from Washington Heights is just going to fix everything even though she might not even be able to afford more than one more semester.

All in all, I think I would probably have liked it better if I hadn’t seen Hamilton first. Because Hamilton is flat out amazing, and with this, you can kinda see that Lin-Manuel wasn’t quite the phenom yet that he would eventually become. The story isn’t as engaging, the songs aren’t as catchy or moving and the characters aren’t as fleshed out. Now maybe they are in the original show, I don’t know. But I think if you go into this after watching Hamilton (either live or the amazing filmed version) you may be a bit disappointed. Because some of the music and dance numbers here are similar enough that it will probably just make you want to turn this off and watch Hamilton again, lol.

 

[Prison Mike]

I thought she wanted to go back to Stanford to be an immigration lawyer to help Dreamers and kids like Sonny.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I thought she wanted to go back to Stanford to be an immigration lawyer to help Dreamers and kids like Sonny.

Yeah that’s the gist of it. But the way she explains it, she acts like it’s going to be this Deus ex Machina solution that’s going to fix things really fast. Like, law school is a long process. Sonny will be an adult by the time she’s finished, if she gets all the way through and doesn’t run out of money.

 

[Prison Mike]

The one thing I don’t get is why she had to go to Stanford. I think they mention that she also got into NYU and Columbia. She could have gone to either and stayed close to home. It’s not like Stanford is the top school in the country (though it’s up there).

 

[DarkKnight88]

It’s not like Stanford is the top school in the country (though it’s up there).

You saw what trying to get into Standford did to Jessie!

 

[Deck Rickard]

The one thing I don’t get is why she had to go to Stanford. I think they mention that she also got into NYU and Columbia. She could have gone to either and stayed close to home. It’s not like Stanford is the top school in the country (though it’s up there).

Yeah I was going to mention that too. Like, her biggest issues were feeling out of place at Stanford and missing everyone back home. So like… go to one of the excellent schools in New York. It’s not like she was living in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Broseph44]

You saw what trying to get into Standford did to Jessie!

I’m so….scared!!!

 

[Dr. Evil]

You saw what trying to get into Standford did to Jessie!

I heard that bit was referenced in the reboot/sequel.

 

[Melpardus]

Yeah that’s the gist of it. But the way she explains it, she acts like it’s going to be this Deus ex Machina solution that’s going to fix things really fast. Like, law school is a long process. Sonny will be an adult by the time she’s finished, if she gets all the way through and doesn’t run out of money.

I'm glad y'all caught that because I certainly didn't. Her whole motivation for wanting to leave Stanford was changed here too; in the original her grades were slipping (I think she ended up on academic probation or something) because she took on extra work to help cover the bills. I can definitely relate to the movie version's feeling of being racially and culturally out of place at an "elite" institution but I dunno, to have that alone be her driving factor, only to change it anyway as easily as she did... Meh.

trash collecting fashion designer girl was so boring and I gathered that the only reason Usnavi was obsessed with her was because she’s pretty. What is their connection? They barely seem to have one.

I'm actually not sure what their connection is supposed to be in either version; they know each other because she frequents the store a lot and I guess they're part of the same friend group, but I think that's about it. She's not particularly fleshed out in the original either to my recollection, but at the same time she's not really the main female character, Nina (the college girl) is. It's like the screenwriters decided to give Vanessa (the fashion designer) the lead female role without giving her any story to support that shift, but then also making Nina and Benny (the main romantic and more conflict-riddled arc) less interesting. Why they did that, I have no clue. Maybe so they could have the ending reveal be more fulfilling; maybe it was a racist thing on behalf of the studio heads to shy away from the story's more racial angle and make sure the white[er] couple were the main emotional focus; maybe they figured the actress who plays Vanessa is more bankable to Latine audiences that Nina's actress because of her telenovela background; maybe all three and some others.

All in all, I think I would probably have liked it better if I hadn’t seen Hamilton first. Because Hamilton is flat out amazing, and with this, you can kinda see that Lin-Manuel wasn’t quite the phenom yet that he would eventually become. The story isn’t as engaging, the songs aren’t as catchy or moving and the characters aren’t as fleshed out. Now maybe they are in the original show, I don’t know. But I think if you go into this after watching Hamilton (either live or the amazing filmed version) you may be a bit disappointed. Because some of the music and dance numbers here are similar enough that it will probably just make you want to turn this off and watch Hamilton again, lol.

I'm sure Hamilton is a well made and probably better written production but I can't bring myself to sit through any iteration of it just on principle. I've always just gotten too much mixed messaging with the Founding Fathers being rapping people of color and I guess the lack of any real acknowledgement of slavery and homogenizing of the immigrant story and all that other "real world" stuff. But yeah, lots of reviewers, even among those who enjoy the movie, have said the same thing as you did here; you can tell this was Miranda's first big production. That said, I'd take it further and say In the Heights the film feels like a draft of the musical before getting a serious rewrite.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Yeah I’m honestly surprised at how this movie is almost at 100% on RT. It’s by no means bad but it’s not great.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Remember that sometimes the ratings have less to do with the movie/show itself, and more to do with what creators/actors “reviewers” like/dislike and want to prop up or destroy.

 

[Melpardus]

Isn't the RT rating (for critics at least) based on the average of the binary "fresh" vs "rotten" rather than a more specific or qualitative value judgement?

 

[Prison Mike]

Overall I really enjoyed this movie despite a few nitpicks already mentioned here. It was one of those feel good movies that we desperately need right now. This movie deserved better marketing IMO.

 

[Prison Mike]

In the Heights is back on HBO Max!