In the Heights (2021)

(On Cable TV, November 2021) As a big, convinced, unabashed fan of movie musicals, it warms my heart to see something as joyous as In the Heights being given the big-budget, special-effects-showcase treatment. Much of it has to do with Hamilton’s runaway success, of course — while Manuel-Lin Miranda didn’t write or direct In the Heights (and only has a supporting role), his involvement as the co-creator of the original stage musical is enough that you can certainly see the similarities between the two — down to the cadence and writing style of the lyrics. A free-flowing look at the Dominican immigrant experience in upper Manhattan, the film juggles an ensemble cast but is largely structured around the final days of a shopkeeper in New York, as he is about to pack up his things and go back to the Dominican Republic, where he has bought his father’s business. But there’s a lot going on around him, from romance to summer jitters about returning to school, a massive power blackout and the frailness of an elderly character. In the best musical tradition, it’s all an excuse for spectacular dance numbers, the most impressive of them balancing all the stories, featuring hundreds of dancers in a poolside setting, or getting across a great joie de vivre. And that’s not mentioning the technical showpiece of the film, a sequence in which two characters are so in love with each other that they dance on the side of an apartment building. (The principle is the same as in the old Batman TV show, but the computer-massaged execution is still a wonder to behold.)  It’s all quite joyful (albeit with one affecting character death), getting us back in the classic Hollywood musical mould with no apologies about it. Suffice to say that I liked In the Heights a lot — it’s the kind of film I’d consider buying on UHD-4K just to get the best possible audio and video and be able to re-watch on a whim. I’m dismayed that it was a box-office disappointment: I’d love for musicals to remain a fixture of American cinema, and we can’t have that if they fail commercially despite great reviews.