On June 10, I went back to the movies.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jon M. Chu’s In The Heights hit theaters and HBO Max on Friday, but finally seeing it confirmed what I suspected since the very first trailers debuted online: For In The Heights, Hollywood went Bollywood.
I have waxed about Indian movie musicals at length on this website and others, but in recent years — especially since Aladdin — my frustration grew with Hollywood’s failure to realize the same potential in its own live-action musicals. I’ve run into this in my own experience as a part-time dancer, creating videos with various other performers and companies. Performance is different for an audience than a camera, right down to singing live versus lip-sync. Video choreography is often more intense since dancers can rest in between takes and only perform small sections at a time.
Turning a stage production into a movie does not mean just adding a camera. It means recreating something from the ground up with a whole new world of visual possibilities. Even the notion of the “stage” — complete with wings and an audience at the front — ceases to exist. Camera angles shift without restriction; anything and everything can be a prop; even costumes don’t have to stay continuous. Think Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, not Hamilton on Disney+.
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A standard Bollywood number in a movie includes 3-4 outfits and different locations to go with them. Characters sing to each other or to camera, dance solo or with an ensemble, and occasionally dance on a moving train. Many numbers are “dream sequences” set entirely apart from character locations. Every frame in a big number is bursting with activity; dancers as far as the eye can see, random bursts of color and movement, streamers and fabric and things you won’t consciously notice even if you watch 100 times.
In The Heights uses most of these techniques to stunning effect in the film’s musical numbers, packing each second with dizzying energy. There’s enough going on that the dances could be simple in movement yet large in scale, but choreographer Christopher Scott pulls out all the stops for exuberant hip hop, salsa, and other regional Latin dance styles for all the big dance sequences. Every single dancer performs with the presence and charisma of a lead, their power radiating off screen.
And the film goes even further. In her review, Mashable’s Erin Strecker praised the use of CGI, which accents several sequences without overpowering the music, lyrics, and story. With these small moments, In The Heights has done for movie musicals what Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did for animation; pushing the medium to new standards for all future productions.
Now, for the first time ever, I want Bollywood to aspire to the bar set by this Hollywood musical. I want pops of animation and stunts on the sides of buildings and at least one pool dance per movie. It feels right that Hollywood’s best movie musical is about immigrants and diaspora, giving some members of the Latinx community the kind of joy and representation that Indian moviegoers have enjoyed for years.
Our stories, our movies, and our experiences are connected. From now on, movie musicals from around the world should strive for the soaring potential of Washington Heights.
In The Heights is now in theaters and on HBO Max.