It’s kind of astounding just how much progress director Jon M. Chu has made in just a few short years. Not that long ago, he was making shit like Jem And The Holograms and adding to the increasingly diminished returns of the Step Up sequels. But then Crazy Rich Asians happened and… something must’ve just clicked in his head. I bring this up because his latest has a fair bit in common with CRA, namely in how it’s drenched in a very specific cultural aesthetic and identity; I’m guessing he’s sticking with what he now knows he can work with. But where it gets really crazy is that he has somehow managed to get past even CRA’s genuine visual splendour, and made an even greater film in the process.
There is something immediately and inescapably inviting about the film’s entire atmosphere. The depiction it gives of the titular Heights (specifically Washington Heights, a Manhattan neighborhood) is that of a block party that never ends. With that lively Latin soundtrack zipping away, and Chu aiming for a Baby Driver-esque synchronisation of every bit of the production with that soundtrack, it delivers on the promise Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) makes at the start that “the streets were made of music”.
It also scratches a bit of my hip-hop itch because that kind of background hits right at the genesis of that particular culture. Black and Latinx Americans congregating at New York block parties is where hip-hop started from, and it certainly helps with the fusions going on with the songs themselves. Like Hamilton, and quite a few of the songs Miranda has put together for Disney, it intermingles singing and rapping with a more operatic ‘lyrics as dialogue’ approach to create vocals just as energetic as the soundtrack they’re backed by. And unlike the versions used for the trailer, none of it feels gussied up with standard Hollywood orchestration; this is the raw uncut, and keeping that kind of purity does wonders for the story being told.
Said story is about an assortment of people living in the Heights who are chasing the American Dream. Yes, once again, Jon M. Chu has managed to make me give a damn about such things, and essentially for the same reason as with CRA: Because it’s the specifically immigrated version of that Dream. As a result, with the different paths the characters take, from Usnavi wanting to return to the Dominican Republic, Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) and her aspirations in the fashion world, and Nina (Leslie Grace)’s difficulties with college, the film shows several variations on a similar theme: Weighing up their legacy/heritage with a potentially prosperous future. What they already have vs. what they could achieve.
As an example of immigrant storytelling, it works very nicely, aided by the pot shots taken at the gentrification process. Some of them are quite boisterous, like Lin-Manuel Miranda himself as the local piragΓΌero and his interaction with a Mister Softee driver, while others are more subtle, like the hold music for Nina’s university being a version of You’ll Be Back, the signature song for the King of England in Miranda’s Hamilton. While it’s only an aspect of the larger story (they don’t miraculously stop the system through the power of music and dance; this isn’t Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo), it adds a very satisfying subtext to the larger feeling of community and togetherness created by the performances and musical numbers. Breaking up these kinds of communities by buying it out from under them (or just flat-out forcing them out through… other methods) means crashing this 1.6 square mile party… and that’d be a hell of a shame.
This is the kind of film designed to lift spirits like it just can’t help itself. Watching this, for me at least, was the process of having a big, wide smile on my face for two-and-a-half hours. It is so joyous, so infectious, so amazingly beautiful in all aspects, that if you decide to watch it for yourself (which I highly suggest doing), expect to either continuously shake your rump in your seat or just jump straight out of it to start dancing. That is how invigorating this film is, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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