IN THE HEIGHTS

IN THE HEIGHTS is a joyful and exuberant trip, a musical that feels of-the-moment and much needed, not least because it’s a celebration of community and of being outside.

Anthony Ramos is excellent as the shop-owning Usnavi at the centre of the film, around whom the story revolves like a colourful merry-go-round.

I loved seeing Jimmy Smits as the owner of a taxi firm, whose daughter, Nina, went to Stanford but has returned home. Smits had sold half his business to get Nina out of the neighbourhood, to give her the opportunities many there will not have. But she returns home, having faced the systemic racism engrained in the higher education system.

This aspect of racism is one of the few times the subject is raised overtly (and takes place off-screen), even though it threads through the entire story. It’s a joyful, unpreachy movie that celebrates the shared identity of the Latino/Latina families living in the heights. Such a story could only be told by somebody who lived there as part of the community, and while it carries an over-riding feeling the experience is being viewed through rose-tinted glasses, it nevertheless feels authentic.

It’s full of lovely songs and dance sequences, but there’s a particularly beautiful and inventive moment when two of the characters in love defy gravity to dance up the face of their tenement building.

More power to Lin-Manuel Miranda. 💐