And then it opened… to meh.
It underperformed in both theaters and on HBO Max. Prospects for a rebound are slim.
So now comes the blame game. There was no recognizable star. The musical wasn’t well-known enough. COVID. Wrong weekend to open. Mercury in retrograde.
But there was one factor they didn’t list, and I suspect it’s because of how PC-charged the world is now. Could it be that a certain portion of the audience just didn’t want to see it? A musical about inclusion set in New York — in these here Divided States of America, is not a big attraction for everyone.
I did want to see it. And I have to say I was disappointed. It’s waaaaaaay too long. I also had story problems. There were some high points certainly and a few great songs, but in general it was just a slog. That’s just me. Your results may vary. But maybe that’s a factor Hollywood should also consider — not everyone loved it. And in this social media universe, negative feedback is available to all from all.
Finally, there is the stupid controversy. The skin shades are not accurate enough for some vocal groups. Things have gotten so absurd that even Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created HAMILTON casting African-American and Latinx actors as our founding fathers, gets accused of being insensitive. So now you have a film that some people feel is too inclusive and others who claim it’s not inclusive enough. Where does this madness end?
We’re talking a musical here. Giant production numbers with huge crowds dancing in unison on the streets and in a public pool — that’s not an accurate portrayal of Washington Heights either… if you want to nit pick. Nor is unseen orchestras and dancers defying gravity by dancing on building walls. But I don’t see any scientists who are outraged.
Repeat after me: It’s a MUSICAL.
I’ll be interested to see how the upcoming new WEST SIDE STORY, directed by Steven Spielberg does. It is a well-known musical although will kids care about seeing a 60 year-old musical? Will the songs play as classics or anachronistic? No big stars in this reboot. Yeah, in the original Natalie Wood couldn’t sing but she was Natalie Wood. Looking at the trailers of WEST SIDE STORY and IN THE HEIGHTS, they look very similar. WEST SIDE STORY has more depth but also more cobwebs. Time will tell, but if I were Spielberg I’d be saying, “Is there time to do some additional filming and add ET?” Of course, now there would be groups saying ET wasn’t tall enough and the movie should be pulled.
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While the PC thing may be an issue, that isn't the reason this film failed. It's just bad. You are right on every point you made. It's too long, the majority of the songs are....fine, and the story just isn't really moving. The message is great and sorely needed right now. My wife was very much looking forward to it. I admit that I was not. But even still. I checked my watch far too many times to say I was entertained throughout.
ReplyDeleteIn the Heights was never that good. It wasn't that good on stage either, and so-called "theatre kids", the high school and college students who act in every school play they can and watch the Broadway musical scene like hawk, already knew this. That group could've predicted the movie would have similar problems.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'd expect execs to look at people's opinions of the stage version; they have Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is popular, and therefore can do no wrong.
I liked In the Heights way more than you. But I'd seen a stage production a few years back, which undoubtedly helped my familiarity with the characters.
ReplyDeleteBut it was the first movie I saw in a theater with my family (I saw Mank alone) in a very long time.
If it had reviewed poorly, that might explain its mediocre BO. But on Rotten Tomatoes it got 96% positive with critics, 95% with the audience.
Maybe it was the controversy. Maybe, at 2:23, it was too long.
Or maybe it's that it's not a summer movie. #1 this week: The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard with only $11 million over the weekend. Godzilla vs. Kong did well. F9 will likely do so also.
I'm hesitating to see IN THE HEIGHTS because I'm not sure if I can hear/translate the words to the songs. I'm too old to really get down with that style of music. I'll prolly stream it so I can read the subtitles.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that Miranda wrote this in college, and honestly it shows. As a project for a theater major, it's great and deserves an A. As a Broadway musical it comes across as a project written by a theater major for college. That's not a bad thing, for a theater student in college. It's just not really at a Broadway level.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know it got awards. And that's fine too, but everyone knows there's a lot more things that influence awards than just quality.
I watched it over two nights. No way would I have done the whole thing in one sitting. So yes, way too long, and a much tighter running time would have helped the production overall.
Full disclosure: I've seen Hamilton twice now and I think it's just okay. I do respect what Miranda accomplishes for diversity, and in that regard, I think the controversy over the casting may be somewhat ... excessive. Attacking people who are trying to address a problem doesn't often help to solve the problem.
Apparently the current generations have grown tired of Lin-Manuel Miranda, or at the very least, that's what I'm hearing from not only friends of mine who love musicals, but critics as well . . . I guess he's become something of a parody/caricature of himself at this point in his career kind of like Betty White or Ryan Reynolds, I don't know, but he's apparently lost his spark I guess? I honestly don't know - I don't watch a lot of musicals, let alone I've never seen a Broadway production; I literally only know him for a guest appearance on SESAME STREET in which he played a real estate agent who tried to convince Big Bird to move to a new, bird-friendly habitat.
ReplyDeleteI bet that many only know Miranda from his bit part on The Sopranos.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing most people would rather watch Grease, The Sound of Music, or Singin' in the Rain again than even think of watching In the Heights even once...
ReplyDeleteChacon à son goût -- I loved it. Maybe because I understood the Spanish and am quite familiar with the neighborhood. It really captured a lot of the joy amid the heartbreak of the Heights.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this is an issue that will never quite be resolved, and despite our national discourse on it, the problem just won't go away. There's no satisfactory answer, and it's not just about being PC versus pragmatic. I will say that identity politics, as much as we all want to deride it, we're stuck with it, particularly in this country.
ReplyDeleteHow do you cast actors in a movie/play/television show in this indentity-fueled climate? I watched a production of Macbeth where Macduff was portrayed by a black actor. And why not? He was brilliant. But there were no black people in Scotland in the 11th century. Who cares, but where do you draw the line? Do you want absolute realism in historical recreations, or just care more about acting?
I'd like to think think that art and basic humanity will win out about above this.
-- Apparently the sense of discrimination against Black Latinos is very real. They've felt under-representated or stereotyped in general Latino society the same way Blacks feel in general American society. And in a movie with an all-Latino cast, the lack of them in a movie set in heavily Afro-Latino area is a huge issue. See https://www.vox.com/culture/22535040/in-the-heights-casting-backlash-colorism-representation , which also explains the blowback "Heights"'s Asian director Jon M. Chu faced with a lack of Asian diversity in his "Crazy Rich Asians".
ReplyDelete-- @Roger Owen Green: Maybe musicals, save guaranteed crowd-pleasers like "Grease", aren't summer movies. They may be best for the fall and Christmas, like with the successful "Mary Poppins Returns" (incidentally also starring Miranda). And with musicals, a long run time is just par for the course. Heck, Bollywood musicals usually hit three hours.
-- As for the upcoming "West Side Story" remake, expect a backlash against the original by the younger audiences. Casting the ethnically Ukrainian Natalie Wood as the lead Puerto Rican is going to sit as well as casting Mickey Rooney as the Chinese landlord in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" does today.
West Side Story is pretty timely stuff. I can't tell you how many times I was threatened by local toughs that threatened to beat my ever-lovin', buggin' head in. At least I'm not a lousy chicken.
ReplyDeleteOnce I saw the words WEST SIDE STORY, I knew a Natalie Wood mention was coming.
ReplyDeleteBefore we get too het up about who is more sensitive about what:
ReplyDeleteTV Guide ran an article that asked several African-Americans on how to make the "Cosby Show" better.
Lenny Bruce had a routine in which he discussed sensitivity when he appeared on the Steve Allen Show and it was concluded that his routine would offend both Jewish people and Gentiles.
The Jack Benny Show ran a show in which everyone was polite and sweet to each other.
The Popeye cartoon, "It's the Natural Thing To Do" starts with a brawl and a letter arrives begging all of them to be more genteel.
The "wokeness" the "political correctness" does not change. What HAS changed is access. A schmo such as I can write something to an award-winning comedy writer and sometimes a Friday question is answered. I call that cool. Some abuse this.
However, there will be some correction to whatever course we may be on because more people have access to the "microphone" and the "microphone" can now be heard worldwide in seconds. There are a lot of people that make up people and after years of being ignored and misrepresented, some of them are tired and want to see things that represent themselves. Everyone's a critic, but most aren't very good ones.
Take, for example, Rochester from the Jack Benny Show. He was a servant, but he was allowed to needle his boss, just as the other characters did. His calling Benny "boss" and his "yes suhs" don't age well. The episode that had him go through his old neighborhood, complete with gambling and drinking drew protests from the NAACP. Conversely, a chapter of the NAACP almost stopped the "That's My Boy" episode of the "Dick Van Dyke Show
It's a drag to write nowadays, so I am told. I'm guessing that all eras had their drags. As a boy, I could not figure out the point of Lois Lane. All she seemed to do was get into trouble and Superman would bail her out. I said that to my Mom and she said, "Lois Lane was a hero to us girls. She was going out and getting that story!"
Things change. It's not ALL good, but maybe "wokeness" and "PC" are growing pains.
In the Heights basically is West Side Story. Always was. It's like if Clueless were released a month before Emma.
ReplyDeleteRe:Diversity casting and West Side Story, etc.
ReplyDeleteAbout 20 years ago, I took my multicultural ESL students to a groundbreaking racially diverse production of WSS at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. It was a lavish production, fabulous choreography, starring the soon-to-be-a-big-Broadway Star, Chilina Kennedy. The problem was that it impossible to distinguish the Sharks from the Jets since there was no consistency of appearance in either group, racially, ethnically or even in ‘team’ costumes. When they rumbled, you couldn’t figure out who was on which side. My kids, diverse as they were themselves, were very confused about the basic point of the play.
On the other hand, a few years ago, the fantastic Yanna McIntosh blew everyone away portraying Desiree in A Little Night Music and nobody cared that there probably weren’t any black actresses traipsing around Sweden at the turn of the last Century.
I've seen the musical live, I didn't care enough to brave a theater or pay for HBO Max to watch the movie. Why? It's pleasant enough, but there's not a whole lot of plot. Mostly people hanging out in the neighborhood. It's not that memorable to me. It feels like training wheels for LMM back in the day. West Side Story actually has gripping plot and drama. "Who won the lottery" (and it's not even a huge haul) is the big plot of ITH. Usnavi and Vanessa are not a romance for the ages. It's just not gripping.
ReplyDeleteI do not know what to say about the color casting controversy. I probably shouldn't say anything anyway.
I see this complaint more often about the length of movies, about them being poorly paced and bloated, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe absolute worst from recent years I thought was a movie called "Bad Times at the El Royale." Some good stuff in there to be found, no doubt, but what should've been a taut 90-minute mystery/thriller was a 141-minute slog.
Where have all the editors gone?
I had very little interest in seeing this in the theater. There's a certain amount of "in your face" woke marketing that it felt I didn't need to pay to be preached at.
ReplyDeleteI'm more likely to enjoy a musical either as a play, or at home, so that also worked into my decision to not rush out and see it as one of the first movies after being locked down for the last year.
A questionable quality Marvell movie or the long delayed 007 is much more what I'm looking forward to seeing on the big screen after the last year watching things at home.
I'm under the impression that the lack of Black Latinos on In the Heights is a mere artifact of a plot that didn't get to the movie, being the discrimination that Benny faced from Mr. Rosario because he wasn't Latino. He was supposed to be a contrast to the rest of the cast. It was definitely an oversight, but I don't think it was out of malice.
ReplyDeleteAbout it being too long, it probably is, but it didn't feel that way for me, I was thoroughly entertained (the songs are mostly great) and because my native language is Spanish, I had a kick everytime it was spoken. I still used subtitles, because I have a bit of a problem understanding when people rap.
I really want to watch it at a cinema when they open again in my country (we are in the middle of a 3rd (?) wave of the virus).
First off, I like musicals. "In The Heights" played at my theater and after hearing the first three songs, which all sounded the same to me....like a Spanish rap/hip-hop version of Hamilton...I couldn't watch anymore. Not a fan of rap/hip-hop of any type....whether it's done by Spanish, African-Americans, Whites, Mollusks, Zebras, Vampire bats, etc. In radio, I had the honor of playing the first rap record by the Sugarhill Gang and thinking to myself "Sheesh, I hope this shit doesn't catch on." If I only knew.......
ReplyDeleteAlso, other customers didn't like it because after about 20 minutes into the show people began to leave the theater. By the time it had ended I'd estimate that close to 2/3rds of the crowd had fled.
And it IS way too long. By the end of the second week we had it, I felt like I had just survived the Bataan Death March. I thought that was going to be the longest movie of the year but just found out that F9-The Fast Saga is even longer than In The Heights. I may end up offing myself after all.
There's an old shaggy-dog story whose punchline is, "I'd rather kvetch." And that sums up pop culture audiences today. First they complain that movies and TV shows are too white. Then when the studios and networks oblige by making more movies or TV shows with minorities, audiences either ignore them or complain about them (or both, in the case of HEIGHTS). And then the studios and networks decide that "these people are never satisfied" and go back to making mostly-white movies and TV shows. And then the cycle begins again...
ReplyDeleteI can’t help but feel Miranda has been a bit overused and overexposed the past few years. Maybe there’s a hype backlash going on?
ReplyDeleteAs well, the subject matter seems rather niche and urban. As network executives would say in the 80’s, “will Middle America get it?” I’m guessing not in this case.
Just because huge numbers of people like one project from a certain creator is no guarantee they’ll automatically enjoy everything else said creator does. Nia Vardalos hit it big with “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” but nothing else she’s done has generated the same level of love and excitement...though I do personally think “Connie and Carla” is underrated but I get why it didn’t draw as large of a following.
ReplyDeleteMaybe “Hamilton” is Miranda’s one-hit wonder?
I saw IN THE HEIGHTS on stage and enjoyed it. I was looking foreward to it in the days leading up to the opening. I watched the opening eight minutes of the film when it was posted on-line and was underwhelmed. Now I am divided about whether to see it. I have seen the trailer for WEST SIDE STORY and it appears that they are trying to downplay the fact that it is a musical. Anyone seeing the trailer and who was unfamiliar with the original movie would be excused for not knowing it was a musical.
ReplyDelete@Ere I Saw Elba: I couldn't disagree with your Macbeth example more. You know what they did have in 11th century Scotland? Women. And yet when Shakespeare was alive and Macbeth was produced, not a single woman appeared in the play, not as a witch, not as Lady Macbeth, and somehow the audiences didn't have a problem with it. Many famous women have portrayed Hamlet without this being a problem. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2014/sep/26/female-hamlets-sarah-bernhardt-maxine-peake-in-pictures I saw Glenda Jackson as King Lear two years ago in New York; in a very strange production, one of the things that stuck out was that since she and the woman playing Cordelia were almost identical in size, you could feel, without a word being said, why Cordelia became Lear's favorite daughter.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, I saw a wonderful production of one of Shakespeare's least performed plays, Henry VI (they cut some of it to make it a two-parter with Richard III). It had an all-woman cast. As I suspect happened in Shakespeare's day, you forgot about this within minutes. If you have a problem doing that with the skin color of an actor, that's your issue, but it's not a universal one. What struck me about the Henry VI production was how the actors clearly were putting forth their best performances, having the opportunity they rarely had to play meatier and more significant roles than Shakespeare had written for "women". A good Black actor playing Macbeth (instead of being limited to Othello) is likely to feel the same way.
Oh come on, I liked it. Granted, I saw it on a 55" 4K screen with superb digital audio in the comfort of my own humble home, but the choreography, photography and Lin-Manuel's unique style of songwriting (or "rap-writing") is pure enjoyment. Wasn't the "twist" ending clever, now really? And Mr. Softee fer godssake!
ReplyDeleteRe "West Side Story": I would like at this time to announce to a wider world audience that in the police station scene, Steven Spielberg personally adjusted my hat. That alone is worth the price of admission ("DON'T try to touch me!"--The Real Don Steele). Set selfies upon request!
Critics were probably obligated or forced to give this movie a good review. Any who didn’t would be labeled racist in today’s climate.
ReplyDelete. geez, I loved it...
ReplyDeleteAn old-fashioned musical with BIG dance numbers and multiple interweaved plot lines for the various characters, a non-ageist cast with a freakin' showstopper song by the old lady, and a happy ending, beautifully shot, sounded great...
But I guess some of y'all are just gonna say I'm complimenting it because I want to sound woke. sheesh...
Leaving aside the outside issues, this movie wasn’t very good because it lacked a compelling story, great acting, and wonderful songs. That’s exactly what made West Side Story one for the ages.
ReplyDelete"LatinX"
ReplyDeleteIs that Speed Racer's other brother?
Is it the element that powers the UFOs at Area 51?
Ken, the people who bring you this dumb word are the same people who bring you this dumb controversy. Don't empower them.
Spielberg is in the club, and will be given rave reviews even if his work is even worse on the criteria they used to bash Miranda's production.
ReplyDelete