In the Heights (2021) review

Or, Crazy Poor Latinos.  Lin-Manuel Miranda's "love song" to the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan revolves around three young people: bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) who dreams of going to (and fixing up) the Dominican Republic, Nina (Leslie Grace) who's having financial trouble and had to drop out of Stanford University and Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), who wants to become a fashion designer.  I've always struggled with works of musical theatre made into feature films - they're inherently out-of-touch with reality so when you take them off Broadway they become more like fantasy to me - and much of this is clearly divorced from "real-life": sadly, it only becomes "grounded" when the beloved local matriarch Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz) passes away, which is when it leans heavily on sappy sentimentality (to go along with Miranda's trademark cornball rap-singing where everything has to rhyme together).  I like and appreciate Hamilton for encouraging discussion about American History, but this is Rent minus the AIDS and plus the piragua.