‘In the Heights’ or — All Simmer, No Tension?
I was looking forward to ‘In the Heights’ (2021), a vibrant musical about a Latinx community in New York following their trials and tribulations during a hot summer and how a power blackout changes everything. I’m a fan of both musicals and that sub-genre of film I’d call “Hot Summer New York Movies” where the scorching heat can elicit tensions and passions in a neighbourhood until they demand release so ‘In the Heights’ was looking promising. So how come by the end I felt I’d been in a coma for over two hours and needed jolted back to life?
My main issue with ‘In the Heights’ is that for all the dancing, colourful costumes, pounding percussion, swaying hips, bared midriffs and heart-felt romances is that the movie feels narratively and dramatically inert. And I mean flat-lining dead on the slab. No, that’s a lie as “totally non-existent” would be more accurate. I’m sitting here thinking how to describe the story and I can’t because I don’t think there is one. I’ll try REALLY concentrating and see what comes out. Here goes -
So Usnavi runs a bodega in Washington Heights but wants to sell up to start a new life in the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile Nina returns home to the neighbourhood on summer break from Stanford University. Around them all the other residents of Washington Heights are getting on with their various lives and, as they do so, an ominous count-down informs us that it is only “3 days until blackout”. Then only 2 days. Then 1! Then the blackout happens after which Usnavi is still running his bodega and Nina is still attending Stanford University.
Er… ta da!?
Usually in these hot Summer New York movies the heat turns the place into a pressure cooker, agitating the people like excited atoms and forcing them to collide with each other until something combusts. For example — in King Vidor’s excellent ‘Street Scene’ (1931) the film culminates in an explosion of humanity that’s reached boiling point, has spilled over and this radically changes everything. Just like how protein changes molecular structure under heat. Here it just feels like a very low and gentle simmering while you’re standing over your frying pan, staring at your eggs and wondering why the whites aren’t denaturating and are still all runny and clear. That’s what ‘In the Heights’ is — clear, runny, undercooked eggs.
Plus, everybody here gets on with each other really well so there’s zero tension between… well, anybody! Imagine if in ‘Do the Right Thing’ (1989), another hot New York movie, that Buggin’ Out burst into Sal’s pizzeria and shouted “Yo! Sal! Fancy going for swim?” and Sal shouted back “Sure! Just let me get my costume and towel and I’ll be right with ya!” and they both walked off and had a lovely time. Well, THAT’S ‘In the Heights’ in terms of dramatic tension.
And as for the consequences of the blackout, that ominous threat looming over everything? Nothing! The blackout has no effect on anything or anyone apart from the fact that they all have to go without air conditioning for a couple of days. This isn’t a terribly deep or profound movie in the slightest!
Although I must confess a certain bias regarding Lin-Manuel Miranda and that is I absolutely can’t stand his music. At all. It just seems to function within such a tonally and rhythmically narrow spectrum and with very few readily identifiable or distinct melodies (I’m not sure he’d recongise a leitmotif if it bit him on the ass). And it’s all so clichéd and repetitive, frequently sounding like substandard Disney Renaissance songs but if they’d been hammered flat over an anvil. In fact, it makes total sense that Miranda is now working so closely with Disney because his songs sound like ersatz Ashman and Menken but with some hip-hop thrown in to avoid any lawsuits. Miranda also over utilises that highly annoying trope many Disney songs have of, after the singer has belted out their number and is coming to the close, suddenly pulling all the instrumentation away and leaving only piano and voice as the singer tenderly sings “But I couldn’t do it anyway” or something like that. You’d know it if you heard it and once you do you’ll wish you could forget it.
So yeah, that’s ‘In the Heights’. A colourful musical about a neighbourhood in New York where nothing happens and nobody grows and everything remains the same and nothing changes. This isn’t a pressure cooker in the slightest; this is a deep freeze.
