In the Heights: Everything That's Good about America

My wife and I just saw In the Heights, the Jon Chu movie on HBO Max, based on Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical play.  We loved it.  It's a righteous joy of a movie, symbolizing everything that's good about America.  That would be that when left to our own devices, we are a land of dreams that can come true.

The story takes place in Washington Heights, a place I know well.  I was there a few days a week for a good ten years or so, going to and from my first full-time teaching job at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck.  I didn't drive yet back then, so I got from the Bronx to Teaneck, New Jersey on a train to Washington Heights and a bus from the Port Authority on Route 4.   When I had time, I grabbed some delicious Cuban-Chinese food in a restaurant across the street from the Port Authority.

Anthony Ramos (who's been doing a great job on the new In Treatment) is outstanding as Usnavi, doing an especially good job giving voice to Miranda's catchy, soaring, soulful songs, with surging melodies and top-notch lyrics.  At times the songs were so good they evoked Cole Porter.

The story was people from the Caribbean struggling to make it in New York, more specifically Washington Heights.  What they have going for them is irrepressible energy and incandescent talent.  But it's tough surmounting poverty, even when you don't have Trump and his ilk beating you down.   Your homeland in the islands is always calling you back ... and I'm not going to say anything more about the plot, except that the ending is a kind of artistic magic, literally.

The movie's Hispanic fabric reminded me of West Side Story, and my wife mentioned Evita.  But In the Heights is most demonstrably neither.  It's about the people not the dictator.  And it's a triumph of life not a Shakespearean tragedy.

Three cheers to Anthony Ramos, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Corey Hawkins, Jimmy Smits and everyone who acted and sang their hearts out in this movie.  Including Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose Piragüero selling flavored ice has what will go down as a classic non-violent fight with Mr. Softee.

24 Legacy 1.1: Dammit! I Liked It

24 Legacy debuted tonight, and I've got to say, though I missed Jack, this new 24 has all the power and pacing and riveting story-by-the-minute of its predecessor.   Which is to say: Dammit! I liked it a whole lot.

Among the salient elements of the plot, my favorite was CTU being taken over by Rebecca (played by Miranda Otto), former CTU head.   She has to work - of course, frantically - underneath the nose of the current director. This is a classic 24 gambit, and great to see again.  Also of interest at CTU headquarters is Edgar Stiles' cousin Mariana (the late Edgar died nobly at CTU for his country, from poison gas, if memory serves).  There are other interesting characters at CTU, and, as always, the most important thing about them is one or more of them is is a double agent.   I hope it's not Mariana.

The new Jack - Eric Carter (played by Corey Hawkins) - is certainly not a double agent.  What he is sharp and driven and highly capable, like Jack.  But, unlike Jack, Corey has a strong wife, much better than the late Audrey.   And Eric has a more significant back story as brother to a gang leader. Good material here for future developments.

The heart of the story is some sort of major attack on America, with a Chechnyan high school student who, in a nice minor twist, has her chemistry teacher wrapped around her little finger and more, and an Isis (or whatever) terrorist group on the hunt in Washington for a list of everyone set to carry out the attack.

And if that's enough, and also in classic 24 tradition, Rebecca is married to a Senator (played by Jimmy Smits) who's running for President.  One of the best things about classic 24 was how it wove great Presidential life-and-death drama into the CTU action.  At times, 24 at its height was House of Cards before its time.

Now, if 24 Legacy were on ABC not Fox, we could actually get Jack Bauer right into the series - or Kiefer Sutherland, at at any rate, who's playing a President in ABC's Designated Survivor, another fine series which has a lot of 24 derring-do, too.

I'll keep watching both, for sure, and will be back here with a review 1.2, or the next hour of the ticking clock with the multiple screens, tomorrow.