The IN THE HEIGHTS Film Adaptation Thread — Page 40

Oh dead God, people can't just sit back and enjoy a show anymore without conducting an Inquisition, torturing all who dare to participate in said entertainment, and finally banish or burn them at the stake for their supposed crimes against humanity. It's a new game - shoot your friends for being imperfect messengers, because going after the real enemies is too hard and taxing on the feverish minds of the twitterverse.

"The WOKE eating its own." As the wokesters say "i'm here for it.

"I love that this movie embraces being a musical and is itself a love letter to movie musicals of the past. "

haha, especially the casting!

"God, shut up. You are acting ridiculous.

The diverse casting of this movie is something to be marveled at. Period.

“It’s like you can never do right, it seems, this is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn’t do it. I mean, I would love to say I did, but I couldn’t." As for her official position on the matter, Rita says that she’s “simply saying, can’t you just wait a while and leave it alone? There’s a lot of people who are puertorriqueño, who are also from Guatemala, who are dark and who are also fair. We are all colors in Puerto Rico.” She continued, “this how it is, and it would just be so nice if they hadn’t come up with that and left that alone, just for now. They’re really attacking the wrong person.”

- The incomparable Rita Moreno "

Best post on this subject !!!

BigDisneyFan said: ""The WOKE eating its own." As the wokesters say "i'm here for it.

"I love that this movie embraces being a musical and is itself a love letter to movie musicals of the past. "

haha, especially the casting!"

Ha! Listen, I agree about the representation and colorism. I’m Southeast Asian and saw all of the complaints about the predominantly East Asian voice cast of Raya. I am one to agree with all the people saying they should have done better while also celebrating and amplifying the representation that did happen. And with that said, the people creating absolutely need to do better and learn from this. But I still loved the movies for what they are.

Rumpelstiltskin said: "Nina sings: "Now back in high school when it darkened, You'd hang out in Bennett Park and" Benny: "Usnavi would bring his radio", Nina" As I walked home from Senior Studies, I'd see you rapping with your buddies . . . etc. Either the implication is clear and they were in school together, or Nina at 17 (or thereabouts) walked home from school and saw the others in their mid/later-20's, meaning that Usnavi and Benny regularly hung out in the park mid-day as adults which makes no sense in light of their jobs and Benny's career ambitions.

- Does everyone believe that the source of the conflict between Benny and Nina's dad was clear in the stage version? I've been talking about this with friends for years. Some of us recognized the race issue but others felt that he was reacting to Nina choosing someone whose ambitions were no greater than his own. It was never explicitly stated in the script; I assume that was intentional."

My belief, to the point re: their ages, was Benny and Usnavi were early 20s to Nina's late teens. She was walking home after it 'darkened' so significantly later than the school day ends - probably doing extra studying, extra curriculars, etc. So Usnavi and Benny are hanging out after work (or, for Usnavi, probably on dinner break). At least where I live, "senior studies" could be read as AP courses, which include extra instruction/studying time (often done after school).

I always interpreted Kevin not liking Benny as

- racism, as he makes clear ("not Latino"

- Being protective of his daughter, in a "no one is good enough for my girl" sort of way. He wants the very very best for her, and it's hard for any human to measure up.

- Knowing Benny from a young age. Normally if Nina would bring a boyfriend home, her dad is meeting him for the first time, he's on his best behaviour and delicately throwing out some accomplishments to show he's 'worthy' and get that parental approval. Kevin's known Benny for well over a decade, and in a cut song (Hear me out) it's implied he wasn't the most presentable kid - dressing in what Benny now considers to be not great clothes, breaking open fire hydrants, etc. Kevin has had a front row seat to Benny being human - messing up, making bad calls, falling down. It requires a bit of a knock on the head and laying it out to show him that, yeah, Benny's a great guy.

Benny's plans per 96,000 seem to be quite ambitious. He wants to go to business school and get an MBA (compared to Kevin's own lack of education) and he explicitly wants to be richer than Kevin, and to participate at least somewhat in investing. Unless there's some lines from book scenes I'm not remembering, I don't think it's at all implied that Benny's ambitions are not greater than Kevin's.

another thing that bothers me about this movie was that there was barely a plot and the characters motivations were wishy washy. vanessa has no story beside wanting to move downtown and liking clothes. we never see she has an actual connection with downtown/fashion. she’s a nail technician wanting to live below 96 st. it’s so unrealistic and naive. and there were so many characters that they weren’t developed enough. especially with benny and nina. we barely know anything about benny in this movie and i hate that they cut down his storyline tremendously. cuca was seriously not needed in this movie at all. what was the point of adding her? she literally had nothing to do in this movie but be pretty. and she barely had any lines. and we needed more of abuela’s story in this movie before she died. that way her death would be more impactful. i hated that they cut camila too. there was no need for that at all. it’s a visually stunning movie but the plot inconsistencies, the inaccuracies, and the colorism makes it a very lackluster film imo.

JSquared2 said: "teddy1996 said: "another thing that bothers me about this movie was that there was barely a plot and the characters motivations were wishy washy. vanessa has no story beside wanting to move downtown and liking clothes. we never see she has an actual connection with downtown/fashion. she’s a nail technician wanting to live below 96 st. it’s so unrealistic and naive. and there were so many characters that they weren’t developed enough. especially with benny and nina. we barely know anything about benny in this movie and i hate that they cut down his storyline tremendously. cuca was seriously not needed in this movie at all. what was the point of adding her? she literally had nothing to do in this movie but be pretty. and she barely had any lines. and we needed more of abuela’s story in this movie before she died. that way her death would be more impactful. i hated that they cut camila too. there was no need for that at all. it’s a visually stunning movie but the plot inconsistencies, the inaccuracies, and the colorism makes it a very lackluster film imo."

We get it -- you don't like the film. Time to get over it and move on with your life..."

i never said i didn’t like it. i think it’s a beautiful movie but it’s just not the best.

Bettyboy72 said: "I don’t like that Rita minimized herself and her influence to pay homage to Lin. Could we give this man any more due? He’s incredibly talented but he’s not the second coming. Without Rita there wouldn’t be a Lin! I just saw the doc on her and she tends to defer to others. She didn’t need to say he did what she could not. That is a gross overstatement.

She did apologize for the statement she made."

She did what any actor with a BIG movie coming up would do: apologize and make nice. She wouldn’t want any backlash or negative press that would in any way affect her next film negatively. Especially when it deals with the same delicate subject matter And I don’t care how big and important actor you are, you would not want to cross and cause a problem for THAT director.

I was shocked to find out how thin the plot of the musical was--- one of the thinnest I've ever seen. Some songs are cute and fun but it could have been 90 minutes and told the exact same story. I actually found the non-song scenes to be extremely slow and the lack of memorable tunes I think hinders the film. However, Anthony Ramos and the cast [along with director] elevated the film.

I think the box office is due to the fact that show is just fine. It’s not amazing and it’s not awful. It’s just not very exciting or interesting. And for whatever reason - I’d guess the musical reason - it just didn’t catch on like “Crazy Rich Asians.” I also think it’s tough having seen “Hamilton” and now seeing this.

Maybe I'm overestimating this but isn't there also an obvious reason that the box office would not be that high, which is because we are in a global pandemic? Are many films really meeting or exceeding expectations for what they would have done in a non-pandemic world?

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binau said: "Maybe I'm overestimating this but isn't there also an obvious reason that the box office would not be that high, which is because we are in a global pandemic? Are many films really meeting or exceeding expectations for what they would have done in a non-pandemic world?"

A Quiet Place II and Cruella opened well and have sustained themselves. While AQP and ITH were not far off in taking #1 this past weekend, the expectations for ITH kept creeping up to the point they were anticipating $20M the first weekend, so to eke out barely half of that? It's bizarre and sad, especially the critically reviled The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard has already pulling in $5.4 before the weekend.

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