By: Liv Miller

‘In The Heights’ is a musical drama that was released in 2021. It is based off of the Broadway musical written by Lin Manuel Miranda, in which its first performance was put on back in July of 2005. After the musical was a huge success on Broadway, Lin Manuel had the idea to bring it to the big screen.

Some background information on this movie is that ‘In The Heights’ takes place in a community in Manhattan called “Washington Heights” where its population is mainly Latina/Latino. The movie follows certain people in this community, and their lives, family, jobs, dreams, and what they want for themselves in the future.

This movie is very cultural based, and highlights Latino culture through certain styles of music and dance. It also tries to highlight the struggles of a minority community and how they are limited by where they come from and how little opportunities they are given by being a part of that community.

I don’t want to give away much about the movie in my review but I liked how the writers made you feel like you really knew the characters. I got pulled into their stories by the music and by how all of their relationships were written and portrayed. The characters mainly communicated their struggles in the songs which I liked. The writers did a good job with making the viewers invested in the story and feel like they are also a part of the community that is featured in the “heights”. The way the characters all interacted like a family made me sympathize with them and connect with the characters more.

I noticed that at the beginning of the movie most of the characters either were struggling with achieving their goals, didn’t know what their goals/dreams were, or hadn’t made an effort to achieve them yet. Throughout the movie I saw each character gain a better understanding of their dreams, and by the end saw a majority of the characters happy with how their life had turned out.

Overall, I really liked the movie. It was cool to watch because it centered around a type of community that’s never really been highlighted in other musicals and films. I liked that the storyline was very realistic and it’s based off of a real place and real issues that are happening in certain communities. I also liked the music and dance styles they included in the movie, because it highlighted the culture of the people this story was about, instead of just having the classic music and dance styles typically used in other musicals.

If you want to see ‘In The Heights’ it is available on Hulu and HBO Max.