MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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In the Heights
MARIA DUARTE is inspired by an uplifting musical about Hispanic immigrants making a home for themselves in New York City
A screenshot from Jon M Chu's In the Heights
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
In the Heights (PG)
Directed by Jon M Chu
FROM the creator and star of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, comes an uplifting and rousing exploration of what it means to be a Hispanic immigrant and dreamer in the US — particularly in the wake of the Trump administration, which labelled them killers, rapists and criminals — in this film adaptation of his award-winning stage musical.
It opens with the film’s narrator, Usnavi (an exceptional Anthony Ramos from Hamilton), on a beachside bar in the Dominican Republic recounting to some young kids his life in the largely Dominican Washington Heights neighbourhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City.
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