‘In the Heights’
In the Heights is going to change the game for movie musicals. The monumental effort that director Jon M. Chu and his team put into bringing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical to the big screen paid off, because this film is nothing short of a masterpiece. Each musical number feels grander than the one that came before it, from 90 dancers splashing in unison at the public pool to acrylic nails tapping out a beat on a salon table. While changes have been made from the Broadway show, almost all of them work—including a brilliant restaging of Olga Merediz’s heartbreaking rendition of “Paciencia y Fe.” And though you could watch it at home on HBO Max, a spectacle like this deserves to be seen on the big screen. It’s hard to think of a movie more perfectly suited to bring back movie theaters than In the Heights.