In The Heights (2021)

Set in the Washington Heights district of New York, a young Latino (Anthony Ramos) has dreams of returning to his place of birth, the Dominican Republic where he hopes to revive his late father's business. Meanwhile, a young Latina (Leslie Grace) returns to the community after leaving Stanford University where she felt ostracized because of her ethnicity. Based on the hit Broadway musical by Quiara Alegria Hudes with music and lyrics by Lin Manuel Miranda and directed by John M. Chu (CRAZY RICH ASIANS). While the film received favorable reviews, it was a box office flop and deservedly so in my opinion. I found the film an amateurish mess! There's not a memorable song in the bunch (and the songs are non-stop, it's practically an opera) and the calisthenics (called choreography in the credits) by Christopher Scott is gauche. While I respect the good intentions behind the project, that of showing the struggles of a Hispanic community often feeling invisible to a larger society and of struggling to attain their own dreams when everything seems to work against them, the cinematic road of bad movies are littered with good intentions. The only number that worked for me is Paciencia Y Fe but that wasn't so much the song or the staging of it but rather Olga Merediz' potent delivery of it. With Jimmy Smits, Corey Hawkins, Melissa Barrera, Marc Anthony, Gregory Diaz IV and Daphne Rubin Vega.