In the Heights (2021) on Netflix
Usnavi de la Vega runs a bodega in Washington Heights. Alejandro brings him word that a store in the Dominican Republic, once his father's, is for sale. He weighs whether to go.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.2/1056,365 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Washington Heights, a Dominican neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, Usnavi de la Vega weighs whether to give up his bodega and return to the Dominican Republic, where he wants to revive a store his father ran. Alejandro, a family friend and an attorney, tells him the property is for sale. Abuela Claudia, the neighborhood's matriarch, raised him. Kevin Rosario runs a taxi company, and Benny works for him. Nina Rosario, Kevin's daughter, comes home from Stanford and says she cannot afford the tuition. Vanessa hopes to be a fashion designer but is turned down for an apartment downtown.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about In the Heights (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In the Heights was accused of colorism over casting that seemed to exclude dark-skinned Afro-Latino actors and misrepresent Washington Heights, and Lin-Manuel Miranda publicly apologized shortly after the film's release.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Broadway's original Usnavi, planned not to appear in the film at all, deciding during development that he was too old for the part; Jon M. Chu and Quiara Alegría Hudes pushed him to play the Piragüero, and he relented only when Hudes threatened to cut the song "Piragua".
- Universal Pictures first planned a film of the musical in 2008 with Kenny Ortega directing and a $37 million budget, but the project was canceled in March 2011, reportedly because the studio wanted a "bankable Latino star" like Shakira or Jennifer Lopez rather than unknown actors.
- Warner Bros. was one of several studios wanting to make In the Heights after the success of Hamilton; to persuade Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jon M. Chu, it built a backlot bodega with piragua carts and staged performances of songs from the show.
- The "Paciencia y Fe" number was shot in the abandoned lower level of Brooklyn's Ninth Avenue station, previously used in Joker; unable to use the New York Transit Museum except on its one day closed to the public, the team rented vintage subway cars from it instead.
- The tunnel sequence was shot in the pedestrian tunnel at the 191st Street station, which the team could only close for filming at night, so the lights were rigged during the day while it stayed open; Jon M. Chu switched them from a rainbow to red, white and blue - the colors of the Cuban, Puerto Rican and American flags.
- A bridge of "It Won't Be Long Now", sung by people Vanessa passes on the street in a choreographed sequence, was filmed but cut from the film, and footage of the sequence shot by a bystander later leaked online.
