In the Heights (2021)

Directed by Jon M. Chu. Starring Anthony Ramos, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Corey Hawkins, Gregory Diaz IV, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jimmy Smits, Olga Merediz, Stephanie Beatriz, Dascha Polanca, Lin-Manuel Miranda. [PG-13]

Exuberant, periodically dizzying movie musical, based on a Broadway play by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes, about a handful of dreamers living in the NYC neighborhood of Washington Heights. Bodega owner Ramos is head over heels for aspiring fashion designer Barrera while saving up to return to his Dominican homeland, college student Grace is too ashamed to admit that she’s a drop-out and tells her father (Smits) that the issue was paying tuition, and so on. The characters and their struggles have a universal relatability that almost short-changes the cultural celebration that the filmmakers were clearly striving for, with only a handful of details (Piragua-slinging, DACA, etc.) separating them from any other youths-chasing-the-prize picture. Plus, whenever the film veers into heavier dramatic territory—the dime-a-dozen dinner outburst, for example—it often feels like someone’s “harshing the buzz” in between the vivid, fizzy music numbers. Chu and company edit these sequences too aggressively, amplifying the rhythms but befuddling the flow, and the sheer volume of them overstuffs an already crowded and overlong enterprise (the pic runs the better part of two-and-a-half hours), but the energy and enthusiasm is undeniably infectious, and the standout moments do stand quite tall—check out little cousin Diaz dropping a verse while flanked by splashing swimmers at the local pool, or the “When the Sun Goes Down” number that blurs the line into fantasia when Grace and Hawkins defy gravity while dancing on the side of an apartment wall. Credit is also due the smartly-chosen cast and location shooting. Anyone who enjoys watching Miranda selling his shaved ice treats should stick around through the credits. Marc Anthony has a small role, and a few actors from the original stage production cameo.

70/100