Last week I had a moral dilemma

I was meant to watch this film with my sister Emma

She’d been looking forward to this since Septem’er

I came up with a solution for some absolution

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I said go to the film with your mother

As you just can’t go with your older brother

It’s company even though it’s another

They had fun as they’d discover

A new film by Lin Manuel Miranda

Telling his first story with musical candour

The writer famous for his high standard

John Chu’s direction wasn’t heavy handed.

Our lead Usnavi works in and owns a shop

In Washington Heights, NYC it’s near the top

It’s a community filled with latinos and latinas

Usnavi wants to own his dads pub on the Dominican marina

He also has a girl he likes, her name is Vanessa

He’s a bit awkward around her, oh bless him and bless her

It’s a warm time of year, around the summer vacation

But the main theme of the story is that of gentrification

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If you wanted a story heavy with a plot

It may not be this film as it doesn’t have a lot

Instead what we see is the warmth of community

They deal with tribulations together to give a form of immunity.

Most of the songs they have a nice beat

As we watch these people feel thrown out of their street

You will feel your head back and forth it will start to bop

As the rhythm of this film never seems to stop

The film’s great strength is that it’s rather kind of funny

The characters have heart, they sing about winning money

The ladies in the salon particularly made me chuckle

As my stony resting bitch face it began to buckle

You will also go “Wow” while having a laugh

As you see how well this film is choreographed

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Were there any issues? Well yes I had one or two.

Why this film went so long, I didn’t have a clue.

Some of the plot threads had rather some repetition

And the over editing is something to which I have a negative disposition.

These are only small things, reserve your indignation

This was still as fun as hours on a playstation

It was a welcome form of representation

For those without voices in the American nation.

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One last word about the way the film did look

Vibrant and imaginative, straight out of a book

The scenes and the outfits all filled with warm colour

This whole thing could have been much duller.

Summary

In The Heights is a fun, warm film which is ultimately about community and identity. With lots of fun song and dance numbers, it’s a brilliant family film which is worth seeing, despite its slightly inflated run time and over-editing slightly under mining the big impressive dance scenes. However, these are only small gripes and the film get’s so much more right than it does wrong. [Grade: B+]