In the Heights is a new musical based off of the stage show by Lin Manuel-Miranda who also contributes the songs for this movie and has a small role as a street vendor, the tale is of Washington Heights a suburb of Manhattan and Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) who pines for the beautiful Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) who yearns to be a fashion designer meanwhile Benny (Corey Hawkins) yearns for Nina (Leslie Grace) who is coming home from Stanford and to her father (Jimmy Smits) and many songs will be sung of these Heights.
In the Heights is a very enjoyable musical that is absolutely worth seeing on the big screen with a great sound system and first off, the opening number is terrific, so lush and catchy and does a great job introducing the cast and their goals and hopes and dreams in the film and to see some of the young kids enjoying the musical numbers in the cinema made me smile in a big way.
Some of the other musical numbers are pretty good as well, one near the end of the film where 2 of the characters are dancing on a building like the Lionel Ritchie music clip Dancing on the Ceiling and another in a local pool are great on a big wide screen and loud sound (this would’ve been a great experience in one of those Dolby Atmos sessions.)
As for the performances they are for the most part very good, Hawkins builds on the good work he did in Straight Outta Compton (an underrated film from 2015) while Ramos is very good as the central lead who runs the corner store and dreams of going back to the Dominican Republic and Jimmy Smits is a lot of fun here, I mainly remember him for more serious roles as well as Bail Organa from the Star Wars prequels.
My favorite person in the cast however was Melissa Barrera as Vanessa, whenever she was on screen I kept thinking “She should’ve been Princess Jasmine in that live action Aladdin film” as she looked like how I felt a live action Jasmine should look like she was beautiful and she could sing (I like Naomi Scott as an actress but I didn’t care for her Jasmine) and she had that Middle Eastern look about her as well, I really hope I get to see more of her in future movies as she’s a great screen presence.
And so that was In the Heights and if you can get to it on the big screen do it, it’s a great little musical that deserves to be seen in the cinema with a great sound system, watching it at home will not be the same at all, 4 out of 5.
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