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The newest movie musical and summer blockbuster is Jon M. Chu’s In the Heights (2021), released on June 11. The film is an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical from 2005, originally penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes. In the Heights explores the struggles of the working-class Hispanic community — mainly Dominicans — living in Washington Heights. The film’s mostly-Hispanic cast of characters fight gentrification and struggle with losing their community, yearn for their country of origin, and dream of a place of their own in New York City. Chu’s bold, bright-colored vision, seen in his other hit Crazy Rich Asians (2018), makes the themes of community and identity shine through. Though the film is not a perfect adaptation of the musical, it retains all of the heart and all of the messages Miranda and Hudes wanted to communicate about Hispanic people living in the US and is definitely worth the watch.
The Story Of In the Heights (2021)
In the Heights is directed by Jon M. Chu, choreographed by Christopher Scott, and stars an ensemble of talented actors, including Anthony Ramos as Usnavi, Corey Hawkins as Benny, and Leslie Grace as Nina Rosario. It was released on HBO Max and in theaters as part of HBO Max’s same-day premiere program, like previous films Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) and Mortal Kombat (2021). With a mostly-Hispanic cast, it is poised to leave a mark on the way Hollywood makes films about and by Hispanic folks in the future.
The main character Usnavi is a Dominican immigrant who lives and works in Washington Heights, running his father’s bodega with his cousin Sonny. He lives with Abuela Claudia, the barrio’s grandmother, who always tells her loved ones to have “paciencia y fe!” Usnavi struggles with homesickness and longs to return to the Dominican Republic to fix his father’s bar, which was totaled in a hurricane. His neighbors and friends always stop by his bodega for their morning coffees and lottery tickets, including Benny, the cab dispatcher; Kevin Rosario, the local cab company owner; Daniela and Carla, who work at the beauty salon; and Vanessa, his long-time crush.
Nina Rosario, the barrio’s sweetheart, returns crestfallen from her first year at Stanford. Everyone sees her as the one who was able to escape the barrio, but she has decided to drop out because of the high price of tuition and the difficulty of campus life as a Latina. She blurts out that she’s home for good at the salon, which shocks all the women. Her father refuses to accept this and tells Nina that he will do whatever it takes to keep her at Stanford. On the other hand, Vanessa, an aspiring fashion designer, wants nothing more than to leave the barrio and her job as a nail tech to live downtown. The odds are stacked against her, though, when her application for an apartment is rejected. Upset, she vents to Usnavi at his bodega, where Sonny asks her out on Usnavi’s behalf.
Punctuated throughout the film are the oppressive summer heat and the sale of a lottery ticket worth $96,000. When Usnavi, Benny, and Sonny are headed to the community pool, Usnavi gets the call that the winning ticket is from his store. While they wait on the numbers of the ticket, everyone begins talking about what they would do with the money. They fantasize about leaving their lives of poverty behind, making impacts on their community, and getting to pursue their personal dreams, but the winner of the ticket is nowhere to be found. The piragüero, who sells his Puerto Rican-style shaved ice, laments in the heat that his customers are leaving him for Mr. Softee, mirroring the gentrification sweeping Washington Heights that’s forcing Daniela to move her salon to the Bronx and the rent to rise.
Abuela Claudia throws a dinner party for Nina’s return and invites her friends over that night, where Mr. Rosario reveals that he has sold his business to the newcomer dry-cleaning shop next door. This infuriates Nina, who insists she will not return to Stanford. Later, she, Benny, Usnavi, and Vanessa leave for the club on their respective dates. Usnavi’s nervousness makes him distant, so Vanessa dances with other guys all night, making Usnavi jealous. The mounting heat of the previous days creates a blackout in the whole of Washington Heights, causing a mass panic across the barrio. In the chaos caused by the blackout, Vanessa and Usnavi get separated and furious; Vanessa tells Usnavi to leave her alone. That night, Abuela Claudia stays at home and reminisces about her poverty-stricken life in Cuba and New York City; she suffers from a heart attack that night and dies, which bands the entire community together to honor her memory. An impromptu celebration held by Daniela, the afternoon she moves her salon out to the Bronx, livens up the community, and ends the blackout.
A month later, Benny and Nina decide that they will have a long-distance relationship when she returns to Stanford for her sophomore year. Usnavi is also planning his move to the Dominican Republic when Vanessa comes to his home with celebratory champagne for them. She confesses her feelings for him and laments that she didn’t say anything sooner. He also discovers in a forgotten box that Abuela Claudia had been the winner of the lottery ticket from earlier that summer, which he sees as a sign that she’s watching over them still — he uses the prize money to pay for Sonny’s DACA fees and set up a trust for him to use. On his last day in Washington Heights, Vanessa takes him to the boarded-up bodega and shows off her new fashion designs, inspired by local graffiti artist Pete’s drip rags, and he feels overcome with emotion. He decides to stay in New York and build a life with Vanessa. The film cuts to the present day, where he and Vanessa are married with a daughter.
Energetic Music And Choreography
A major complaint with movie musicals is that companies cast famous actors and actresses to draw in audiences instead of performers with Broadway experience. In In the Heights, this is nowhere to be found. Most of the actors and actresses in the film are singers or have Broadway experience. The singing and dancing in this film are strong because both the leading roles and ensemble have the talent (and the credentials) to back it up. Anthony Ramos was John Laurens / Philip Hamilton in Hamilton, Leslie Grace and Melissa Barrera are both accomplished Latin singer-songwriters, and Olga Merediz originated the role of Abuela Claudia on Broadway thirteen years ago. Where other musicals compromise quality for star power — like the ill-fated Into the Woods (2014) — this film does not.
The central aspect of any movie musical is how the director and choreographer work together to create the big ensemble dance numbers. Chu and choreographer Scott capture the high energy and Latin beats from the titular opening number to the iconic “96,000” to the sentimental “Paciencia Y Fe” to the finale. The importance of the barrio is reflected in these huge ensemble numbers, where folks from all over the community of every shade and background sing and dance together. For example, in the opening number, “In the Heights,” Chu shows the people in the barrio getting ready for work, cooking, walking to the subway, and opening their grates. Though understated, it pulls audiences into the lives of these working-class Hispanic folks and gets us to sympathize with them. The end of the number is a huge dance in the streets, cut with the barrio members at their jobs singing as they work. The street dance uses Latin dance steps — likely merengue — and a choreography style reminiscent of that in Hamilton. It’s exactly what a movie musical needs to start strong.
“96,000” is show-stopping and a perfect representation of Chu’s splashy, vivid style. The number can be broken up into two parts: the walk to the pool, which uses on-screen animations to show off Benny, Usnavi, Graffiti Pete, and Sonny’s gesticulations, and the pool, which is a spectacle of community and synchronization. The first part, which takes place between just the aforementioned four characters, uses animated golf clubs, diamonds, and dollars to represent the fantasies of what these men would do with their money if they won the $96,000. One of the funnier animations is on the lines “Keep the bling, I want the brass ring like Frodo” and “Oh no, there goes Mr. Braggadocio,” where an animation of the One Ring from Lord of the Rings fires down from the sky into Benny’s hand before being snatched up and tossed aside by Usnavi on their respective lines. It’s a clever little trick that works well for the film and adds an element of fantasy to a song that’s literally about the fantasies of the barrio.
The second part of “96,000” at the pool gives audiences a scene of community unity as the pool-goers all call family to check their tickets and talk about what they want to do with the money, all while singing and dancing in the pool. Again, Scott’s choreography shines through here as he coordinates dancers on the pool deck and benches, a whole synchronized swimming routine around Vanessa’s inner tube, and a full dance combination in the shallow water section of the pool. It’s a spectacle of dance and color, full of bright blues and neon pinks and purples, that captures the fervor and desire of the community members to win the lottery. The slow part of the song, where Vanessa sings wistfully about what she’d do with the prize money, has ensemble members dancing ballet on the ramp into the pool, an artful choice that captures Vanessa’s loftier dreams. There’s even a section of the breakdown at the end of the song shot underwater, where audiences see the ensemble swimming and doing balletic footwork — it’s a cool shot that leads perfectly into an above shot of the pool-goers dancing and splashing the water with their movements. It’s easily the best musical number in the film.
“Paciencia Y Fe” takes what could be an understated ballad and transforms it into a magical realist masterpiece that delves deep into the childhood of Abuela Claudia. Most of the number takes place on a subway train and the subway station, representing the transitory nature of Abuela Claudia’s upbringing, moving from Cuba to New York City. Throughout all this chaos and movement is the refrain “paciencia y fe,” reminding audiences that Abuela Claudia only got to where she was through her patience and the faith that she’d be happy one day. The ensemble members wear all white and change from traditional Cuban styles and 1940s styles throughout the number, reflecting the nostalgia with which Abuela Claudia looks back on her childhood. Scott choreographs this number with a hybrid-contemporary and Latin dance that shows Abuela Claudia’s blended identity.
The contemporary dance aspects of the number help communicate the inner psychology and life of Abuela Claudia as she and her mother struggled to survive while the Latin dance connects to her roots. The number ends on a bittersweet note as Abuela Claudia looks down the hallway of the subway station, with its multicolored graffitied walls, red, white, and blue neon lights, and Cuban-dressed ensemble before walking out of the station and into the light to symbolize her death. It’s a heartbreaking, creative rendition of the number that captures the emotional and psychological intensity present in the ballad.
Deviations From The Stage
The film does take its liberties with the plot, which is bound to be a disappointment to the many fans the musical has. The most glaring differences are found in the stories of the Rosario family, which actually hurts the complex racial and class politics of the original musical. Part of what made the original musical so thought-provoking is how it explored the prejudices and expectations of Hispanic communities against other racial minorities. The film, while good in most departments, feels lacking in this key aspect. Benny is notably the only non-Hispanic main character in both versions of the musical, but the film cuts racial tension between him and Mr. Rosario entirely. Mr. Rosario makes it a point to tell Benny in the original musical that he will never own Rosario’s because he’s not family and that he will never be family because he isn’t Hispanic. He also disapproves entirely of his romance with Nina, another feature cut in the film. This edit does a disservice to the film since it takes away the reason why Benny and Nina are a couple in the first place and the struggles they face in the barrio as an interracial couple.
Some of the songs, including the emotional duet “Sunrise,” which is sung by Benny and Nina the night after they consummate their relationship, are cut. “Inutil,” where Mr. Rosario sings about his upbringing and his failures to provide for his family, is also cut. Nina’s mother, too, is dead in the film. These decisions were probably made to shorten the film and streamline the complex story, but it feels like a crime to cut the only intact family in the story and the interiority of Mr. Rosario’s character for efficiency. To someone who hasn’t seen or heard the original musical before, these things probably don’t matter as much, but these edits to the already-wonderful script are troublesome for fans of the story. On another note, some lyrics from “96,000” are cut as well to be more socially aware. Benny’s line “Donald Trump and I on the links / And he’s my caddy” swaps Donald Trump for Tiger Woods in the film. Graffiti Pete’s line “I got more hoes than a phonebook in Tokyo” is also changed to “I got more flows than Obi-Wan Kenobi, bro” in the film. You wouldn’t notice them unless you knew the song before, but they’re minor and don’t affect the story at all. They’re still just as witty as the original song.
Issues With Representation
Best of all is the way In the Heights avoids the stereotypes associated with Hispanic characters in film and television. It celebrates and centralizes the immigrant experience most clearly in the characters of Usnavi and Abuela Claudia, portraying them as valuable members of the community. The immigrant experience is also reflected in Sonny, who is a DREAMer that longs to be an American citizen since it’s all he’s ever known. There is no wrong or right way to be an immigrant, which is showcased throughout the film. There are Hispanic folks of every shade and nationality present in In the Heights. Lead character Nina’s Afro-Latina-ness does not disqualify her from being seen as Hispanic, and neither does that of the ensemble characters. As Carla proudly proclaims in “Carnaval Del Barrio,” she is “Chile-Domini-Cu-Rican,” showing the ways in which immigrants have come to the US and blended together. However, this representation is not evenly represented across the board; there is a surprising lack of Afro-Latino performers, especially dark-skinned ones, in the main cast.
Although there are Afro-Latinos in the film, they are found mostly in the ensemble, in the background. Despite the musical being set in a predominantly Afro-Latino neighborhood and about the lives of Dominicans, many of whom are Afro-Latino, the only lead role played by an Afro-Latino performer is Leslie Grace as Nina. The colorism issue is a serious one and leads me to believe that perhaps Chu and Warner Brothers presented a Hispanic identity that is palatable to non-Hispanic audiences. Instead of being honest and showing that Dominicans are not just one shade of brown or black and that not all Hispanics are brown-skinned in general, Chu and Warner Brothers did something akin to Orientalism in presenting a uniform, palatable version of Hispanicness and Dominicanness.
Best Film Of The Summer Yet?
Jon M. Chu’s movie musical In the Heights is a wonderful adaptation of the complex, hard-hitting musical originally written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes in the early 2000s. Thirteen years after its Broadway debut, so much of the original material holds up today in 2021, such as the depiction of gentrification, DACA, and historically white universities. Although there are some edits to the book of the original musical, especially in the Rosario family’s storylines, the film still has the same themes of love and unity.
But despite the wonderful presentation of the musical and its themes, the casting leaves much to be desired in terms of representing the Dominican, Afro-Latino experiences. The removal of the Mr. Rosario-Benny tension and the lack of Afro-Latino performers takes away from the already underrepresented Afro-Latino community. However, this film shows audiences how to have paciencia, y fe in the face of adversity. With stupendous choreography from Christopher Scott, the all-important ensemble scenes show a unified barrio full of life, diversity, and strength. In the Heights is a must-see and is out now in theaters or through HBO Max until July 11.
