Daphne Rubin-Vega Archives

Review: ‘Ezra’ (2024), starring Bobby Cannavale, Rose Bryne, Vera Farmiga, Whoopi Goldberg, Rainn Wilson, Tony Goldwyn, William A. Fitzgerald and Robert De Niro

May 27, 2024

by Carla Hay

William A. Fitzgerald and Bobby Cannavale in “Ezra” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)

“Ezra” (2024)

Directed by Tony Goldwyn

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the United States, the dramatic film “Ezra” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A divorced stand-up comedian, who has a volatile temper, illegally takes his 11-year-old autistic son on a cross-country road trip when the comedian gets a guest appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Culture Audience: “Ezra” will appeal primarily to people are fans of the movie’s headliners and stories about father-son bonding, even if some of the story is problematic.

Robert De Niro, Bobby Cannavale and William A. Fitzgerald in “Ezra” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)

Even though the name of the movie is “Ezra,” this uneven but well-acted drama is really about Ezra’s loudmouth and volatile father Max Brandel. This sometimes-frustrating film comes dangerously close to glorifying bad parenting but is saved by some realistic and heartfelt moments. Still, viewers with enough life experience will never feel like this movie is completely relatable, since so much of the movie looks contrived, even if some of the story was inspired by real people.

“Ezra” is directed by Tony Goldwyn, an actor who’s had numerous roles in film and TV but is best known for the role of Fitzgerald Grant III (a fictional U.S. president) on the TV drama series “Scandal,” which was on the air from 2012 to 2018. Goldwyn has directed several episodes in TV series (such as “Scandal” and “Dexter”), and the previous movies he directed have been about romances, such as 1999’s “A Walk on the Moon,” 2001’s “Someone Like You” and 2006’s “The Last Kiss.” Tony Spiridakis wrote the screenplay for “Ezra,” whose title character is a boy living with autism. Spiridakis’ son Dimitri is also living with autism. “Ezra” had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

The movie begins with a scene of comedian Max Brandel (played by Bobby Cannavale) doing a stand-up comedy performance somewhere in a New York City nightclub. In his perfomance, Max talks about having an underage autistic son and how this child wouldn’t speak for several years, and “when he finally started speaking, he wouldn’t shut up.” Max tells a few more jokes and gets a fairly good, but not overly impressive, response from the audience. People clap and do some cheering, but they aren’t giving Max a standing ovation.

Max has a few more upcoming gigs booked at this nightclub. The nightclub owner Robert “Bob” Segal (played by Geoffrey Owens) tells Max that a talent booker from “Jimmy Kimmel Live” is going to be in the audience at one of Max’s upcoming shows. Max’s manager Jayne (played by Whoopi Goldberg) is thrilled and tells Max not to do anything to mess up this big opportunity.

Max has a tarnished reputation and a damaged career, so getting a guest apperance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” will be a big career boost for Max. He used to be a hotshot comedy writer in late-night television until he was fired for punching his former boss Conan O’Brien. Max became a stand-up comedian after not being able to get a job as a TV writer because of this scandal. Max (who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey) is also financially broke and had to move in with his divorced father Stan (played by Robert De Niro), who also has a “loose cannon” temper.

Max is divorced from Ezra’s mother Jenna (played by Rose Byrne), and they share custody of 11-year-old Ezra (played by William A. Fitzgerald), who is a bright and inquisitive child. (Fitzgerald is on the autism specturm in real life.) Max still hasn’t gotten over the divorce from Jenna and keeps hoping that he and Jenna will get back together. Jenna has already moved on to someone else. She’s currently dating an attorney named Bruce (played by Goldwyn), who’s somewhat smug, but Bruce tries to stay out of the squabbles that Jenna and Max have over how Ezra should be raised.

Max and Jenna have very different parenting styles. Max sees nothing wrong with not having a strict routine for Ezra and exposing Max to entertainment meant for older teens and adults. For example, Max lets Ezra binge watch “Breaking Bad,” a TV series about a drug dealer, with a lot of violence and cursing. Max also sees nothing wrong with bringing Ezra to nightclubs and letting Ezra stay up late to watch Max perform. Jenna wants Ezra to have a more structured upbringing where he’s expected to follow rules that most kids his age would have.

At the public school where Ezra is a student, Ezra gets into trouble for disrupting a class by quoting some threatening curse-filled dialogue that he heard on “Breaking Bad.” Max and Jenna are called to have an urgent meeting with the school’s Principal Lee (played by Daphne Rubin-Vega) to decide what to do about Ezra, who has gotten into fights before at this school. These fights are not seen in the movie, but Max insists in the meeting with Principal Lee that Ezra was being bullied and fought back in self-defense in these previous fight incidents.

Principal Lee suggests that Ezra might be better off in a school for kids with special needs. Max hates the idea because he thinks Ezra needs to learn what it’s like to be in the “real world,” and he thinks Max does not belong in a school for kids with disabilities. Jenna is concerned for Ezra’s safety in this public school, so she is much more open to the idea of putting Ezra in a school where he is much less-likely to be bullied for being “different.”

During this family turmoil, Max is at home with Jenna, when he overhears Bruce sarcastically joking that Bruce can get rid of Max by putting a murder-for-hire hit on Max. Ezra doesn’t understand that Bruce is just joking, so Ezra panics and runs out in the street, where he is hit by a car.

It leads to an investigation over whether or not Ezra is suicidal. Ezra doesn’t tell anyone right away that he ran out in the street because of what he heard Bruce say. Max insists that Ezra is not suicidal. Jenna isn’t so sure and wants to wait and hear the diagnosis of a child psychiatrist who has examined Ezra.

A meeting that Max and Jenna have with a child psychiatrist named Dr. Kaplan (played by Alex Plank) goes very badly when the doctor prescribes Risperdal, also known Risperdone, to Ezra. Risperdal is prescribed to people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Max thinks this medication is too strong and inappropriate for Ezra. Max and Dr. Kaplan have a verbal argument, which turns into Max punching Dr. Kaplan.

Max gets arrested for this assault. Dr. Kaplan declines to press charges on the condition that Max has a restraining order against him. Under this restraining order, Max can’t see Ezra for three months. Bruce is Max’s attorney, which seems like a conflict of interest, but it can be presumed that Bruce only decided to take Max as a client because Jenna asked Bruce. Jenna probably asked Bruce to give Max a discount on Bruce’s usual legal fees.

Not surprisingly, Max hates being in this legal mess, but he doesn’t show much remorse for the fact that he created this mess. Max also thinks it’s unfair that he can’t see Ezra because Max doesn’t think he’s a danger to his child and can’t bear to go three months without seeing Ezra. When Max finds out that he’s been booked for a stand-up comedy appearance on the Los Angeles-based “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Max decides to illegally take Ezra on a cross-country road trip to Los Angeles so that Ezra can be on the set of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to watch Max perform.

During this road trip (which includes stops in Michigan and Nebraska), Ezra tells Max several times that Ezra wants to go home, but Max ignores those pleas. Max rudely and stubbornly treats a frantic Jenna as if she’s being an unreasonable shrew for worrying about Ezra in this kidnapping. And to be clear: It is literally a child abduction, since Max went to Jenna’s home at night, woke up a sleeping Ezra, and secretly took Ezra out of the home without permission. Max also dismisses Stan’s warning advice not to take Ezra on the road trip and to bring Ezra back to Jenna’s home.

If all of this sounds like awful and selfish parenting from Max, it is. And at times, it becomes very annoying when the movie tries to convince viewers that Max is a misunderstood parent who’s fighting back against the “system” that’s “robbing” Max of wanting to spend time with his child. The movie only succeeds if the intention is to show that flawed, self-absorbed and dysfunctional parents like Max exist and are very much in denial about the bad decisions that they make as parents.

Some of Max’s childhood is mentioned as a way to explain why he turned out the way that he is. When Max was a child, Stan used to have a successful career as a professional chef in top-rated restaurants in New York City. But time and time again, Stan would get fired because of something (usually violent) that he did when he lost his temper. Stan’s wife eventually left the family because she couldn’t take living with Stan anymore. Stan raised Max as a single parent, and they have not had contact with Max’s mother for decades.

For a while, when Max was still a boy, Stan and Max moved to a rural part of Nebraska because Stan couldn’t find work as a chef in the New York City area. But father and son eventually moved back to the New York/New Jersey area. Stan became an apartment building doorman, which is the job that he has when this story takes place. Stan seems to have mellowed with age, but he can still be feisty, and he gets into arguments with Max. Although they disagree on many things, Stan and Max are actually a lot more alike than they care to admit.

At first, Jenna doesn’t want to call the police about Max illegally taking Ezra because she thinks it would be traumatic for Ezra to see Max get arrested. But after four days of Max avoiding or deliberately cutting off her phone calls, Jenna takes Bruce’s advice and calls the police to report the kidnapping. Because most of the movie is about the road trip, a lot of screen time in “Ezra” is about Max revisiting friends from his past, because he needs safe places to stay to hide out from the law. Two of these friends are a former comedian named Nick (played by Rainn Wilson) and a former schoolmate named Grace (played by Vera Farmiga), who knows Max from when they went to the same high school.

“Ezra” has moments of messy melodrama that are kind of eye-rolling in how fake these moments look. But then, the movie also has quieter moments that are engaging and more authentic. The scenes where Max visits past friends stand out as among the strongest parts of the movie. Cannavale and Byrne also have realistic chemistry as parents who know each other very well. (Cannavale and Byrne are a couple and parents in real life.)

Ezra has the type of autism where he doesn’t like to be hugged. And so, there are some poignant scenes where Max and Jenna try to hug Ezra, and he recoils as if he’s in pain. He sometimes shouts at someone to not touch him, or he will coldly tell someone who wants to hug him, “You can go now.” These scenes show the heart-wrenching emotions parents must feel when they know showing affection to their child, such as giving a hug to their child, can make the child feel very uncomfortable or unsafe. Jenna can usually calm Ezra down by rubbing his ear while he rubs her ear.

Ezra is also afraid of using eating utensils that aren’t plastic. Max tries to get Ezra to change this way of thinking in a scene that’s a little hard to watch because of how Max loses his patience with Ezra. Max often fails to understand that he can’t force Ezra to have the same type of childhood learning process that Max had when Max was a kid.

Max doesn’t want Ezra to be coddled, but Max frequently loses sight of what’s in the best interest of Ezra. Nowhere is this more evident than in scenes where Max repeatedly describes Ezra as Max’s “mojo” good luck charm. A child should not be described as being a good luck object. A child’s worth should not defined by a parent forcing the child to have the responsibility of making a parent happy. Max uses this excuse as the reason why Ezra needs to go on this road trip with Max to “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Cannavale (who’s doing yet another role as a brash, fast-talking character) carries the movie with a certain amount of intensity but doesn’t go overboard into implausibility for his Max character, even though some of the situations are written and directed in an over-the-top way. (The movie’s mid-credits scene is ridiculous and out of place.) Max isn’t a bad person, but he can be very irritating, and his violent actions should not be excused.

Fitzgerald, De Niro and Byrne do fine jobs with their roles and are convincing as family members who are frequently at odds with each other. But this “Ezra” movie is really Max’s show, and everyone else is just living in it. How much viewers will enjoy this movie will depend how much they think what Max does is worth forgiving and how much they think he’ll learn from his terrible mistakes.

Bleecker Street will release “Ezra” in U.S. cinemas on May 31, 2024. A sneak preview of the movie was held in U.S. cinemas on May 20, 2024.

Review: ‘Tick, Tick…Boom!,’ starring Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús, Joshua Henry, Judith Light and Vanessa Hudgens

November 22, 2021

by Carla Hay

“Tick, Tick…Boom!”

Directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in 1990 in New York City, the musical biopic “Tick, Tick…Boom!” features a racially diverse cast of characters (white, African American, Latino and multiracial) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Aspiring playwright/composer Jonathan Larson, who’s frustrated that he hasn’t reached his goals by the age of 30, struggles to complete his first musical, which he hopes will end up on Broadway.

Culture Audience: “Tick, Tick…Boom!” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of movie musicals, Broadway musicals, Lin-Manuel Miranda and star Andrew Garfield.

Robin de Jesús, Mj Rodriguez and Ben Levi Ross in “Tick, Tick…Boom!” (Photo by Macall Polay/Netflix)

It’s very fitting that Pulitzer prize-winning Broadway musical mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton”) makes his feature-film directorial debut with an emotionally stirring and ambitious musical celebrating another Pulitzer prize-winning Broadway musical mastermind: “Rent” creator Jonathan Larson. In 1996, Larson tragically and unexpectedly died at the age 35 of an aortic dissection. A brief period of Larson’s life (mostly in 1990) is recreated with a winning blend of exuberance and gravitas in the Miranda-directed musical “Tick, Tick…Boom!,” based on Larson’s solo artist show that featured a book and biographical original songs written by Larson. After Larson’s death, “Tick, Tick…Boom!” was reworked as a three-actor show and premiered off-Broadway in 1996. For a while, Miranda portrayed Larson during the off-Broadway stint of “Tick, Tick…Boom!”

In the “Tick, Tick…Boom!” movie role of Larson, Andrew Garfield gives a stunning and heartfelt performance that perfectly captures the highs, lows and everything in between of what it means to be a passionate but struggling artist. Miranda and “Tick, Tick…Boom!” screenwriter Steven Levenson crafted a story that does cinematic justice to the musical genre, with elements that combine gritty drama with whimsical fantasy. This blend mostly works well, although some viewers who are unfamiliar with Larson’s story might be confused by the timeline jumping in the movie. Most other people will simply be enthralled by the journey.

Larson was born in White Plains, New York, on February 4, 1960. In the beginning of the “Tick, Tick…Boom!,” Jonathan is living in New York City and is a few days away from turning 30. And he’s not happy about it. Why?

Jonathan, who writes and performs pop/rock music, hasn’t achieved his goal of writing a musical that’s gone to Broadway. He’s beginning to question if he made the right decision to be a playwriter/composer. He’s so financially broke, he hasn’t been paying his utility bills. And he’s worried that eviction from his apartment might be in his future.

Things aren’t completely bleak for Jonathan. He and his girlfriend Susan (played by Alexandra Shipp) are in love. She is completely supportive of his goals, even if it means Jonathan gets so immersed in these goals that he doesn’t pay enough attention to her. Jonathan is also proud and supportive of Susan’s chosen career. Susan contemplated being a doctor, but she chose instead to have a career in modern dance, and she overcame a setback of fracturing her ankle. She’s been more successful than Jonathan in actually getting paid as a professional artist, although Jonathan is quick to point on in a movie voiceover that Susan doesn’t care about becoming rich and famous.

Jonathan also has three other special people in his life, who are all close friends of his: Michael (played by Robin de Jesús), his opinionated gay best friend from childhood; Carolyn (played by Mj Rodriguez, also known as Michaela Jaé Rodriguez), a sassy co-worker at the Moondance Diner, where she and Jonathan work as servers; and sweet-natured Freddy (played by Ben Levi Ross), who’s also a Moondance Diner server. Michael used to be a struggling actor and Jonathan’s roommate, but he gave up this lifestyle to have a steady income as an advertising agency executive.

Jonathan has been working on a musical called “Superbia,” which he describes as an “original dystopian musical that I’ve been writing and rewriting.” It’s the “rewriting” part that has got Jonathan anxious, because he currently has writer’s block in finishing the musical. Another problem is that Jonathan has a hard time describing the plot of the musical, because he doesn’t quite know where the plot is going.

Jonathan throws a 30th birthday party for himself at his apartment. Michael, who is more financially practical than Jonathan, gently chides Jonathan for spending money on the party when Jonathan hasn’t been paying his bills. Jonathan and Susan still have romantic sparks between them, but something has shifted in their relationship: Jonathan turning 30 has given him a new restlessness and insecurity about his career goals, while Susan wants a sign that Jonathan is ready to make a more solid commitment to her.

Susan and Jonathan don’t live together, and they’re not in a rush to get married. However, Susan wants to eventually live with Jonathan, who doesn’t really want to commit to a “yes” or “no” answer in contemplating taking their relationship to the “live-in partner” level. Jonathan and Susan’s relationship is tested in a big way when Susan gets a job offer to be a dancer and dance instructor in the Berkshires, a rural part of Massachusetts.

The news about this job offer comes around the same time that Jonathan gets a big opportunity for his musical theater dreams: He’s been asked to present “Superbia” as a workshop at Playwright Horizons. The director of Playwright Horizons is Ira Weitzman (played by Jonathan Marc Sherman), an experienced, middle-aged theater benefactor who is encouraging to Jonathan but is skeptical that Jonathan can be focused enough to finish “Superbia.”

Invitations have gone out for the “Superbia” workshop, but few people have responded so far. Still, Jonathan is under immense pressure to finish his musical by the deadline. He’s too embarrassed to tell Ira the biggest problem: He hasn’t written a single song for the musical yet.

“Tick, Tick…Boom!” has two parallel countdowns: (1) The more explicitly stated countdown to Jonathan finishing his “Superbia” musical on time, and (2) Jonathan’s own internal and implicit countdown to write a musical that ends up on Broadway before he thinks he’s too old. The title of “Tick, Tick…Boom!” comes from Jonathan’s description of how he feels like his life is a ticking time bomb where his dreams will explode into disappointment if he doesn’t reach his career goals by the deadlines that he sets for himself.

During these intense scenes of Jonathan rushing to finish “Superbia” on time, he encounters some other problems: Susan is pressuring Jonathan to set aside time to talk with her about the decision she’ll make on whether or not she’ll take the dance job in the Berkshires. He avoids Susan because he wants to work on “Superbia.” Jonathan, who uses a computer for writing the musical’s book, experiences a major setback when his electricity is suddenly turned off the night before the workshop, and he still hasn’t finished the musical.

Jonathan’s fast-talking agent Rosa Stevens (played by Judith Light) does the best she can to get him work, but she’s blunt in telling him that it’s difficult when he hasn’t had any work produced on Broadway. At this point in time, Jonathan’s best shot of getting investors for “Superbia” is through this upcoming workshop, which could lead to “Superbia” going to Broadway, if everything goes according to Jonathan’s plan. As far as he’s concerned, this workshop for “Superbia” is a “make it or break it” moment in his career.

But now for the moments in “Tick, Tick…Boom!” that might turn off or confuse some viewers: This entire tension-filled story telling what happened to Jonathan and his race to finish “Superbia” on time is told within a flashback context where Jonathan is describing this part of his life in a solo-artist rock concert musical called “Tick, Tick…Boom!” During this concert, he sings and narrates the story (often while playing piano), while he’s backed up by a band and two other singers who sing lead vocals the songs: Karessa (played by Vanessa Hudgens) and Roger (played by Joshua Henry).

In real life, Larson began performing “Tick, Tick…Boom!” (originally titled “Boho Days”) in an off-Broadway show, beginning in 1990, just a few years before completing “Rent.” “Tick, Tick…Boom!” essentially keeps the same premise as the stage version, except that Larson’s flashback storytelling is acted out in scenes on screen. What happened to “Superbia”? That’s revealed in “Tick, Tick…Boom!,” which has plenty of vibrant musical numbers, although some of the narrative aspects of the screenplay are a little clunky.

For example, there’s a scene in the movie where Jonathan, while performing his “Tick, Tick…Boom!” show on stage, has a flashback to several years earlier, when he met legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim (played by Bradley Whitford) at a musical theater workshop. At the time, Jonathan was presenting an unnamed project that ultimately never made it to Broadway and possibly never even got produced.

Jonathan describes this workshop for aspiring playwrights and composers as having a rotating number of guest panelists who evaluate each musical presented. The panelists are usually professional Broadway writers. Stephen was one of the two panelists evaluating Jonathan’s musical. It’s an amusing scene where Stephen and a fictional character named Walter Bloom (played by Richard Kind) is the other panelist.

After Jonathan presents songs from his musical, Walter immediately gives an insulting rant, including saying that the musical has no identity. Walter also says that the musical style doesn’t know if it wants to be more like rock music or more like Broadway show tune music. Meanwhile, Stephen (who’s the most famous person in the room) gives a positive review: He says the musical knows exactly what it is, but the songs need more work. Walter, who is clearly intimidated by Stephen’s clout, quickly changes his mind and agrees with everything that Stephen says.

At one point, Stephen praises one of the songs as having “first-rate lyric and tune.” In a voiceover, Jonathan says, with awe still in his voice, that those words from one of his theater idols gave Jonathan the type of encouragement that he carried for years. As part of this flashback, Jonathan and Stephen are then shown having a one-on-one evaluation session, where Stephen gives Jonathan some more helpful advice.

This flashback scene, although very well-acted, is one of the drawbacks to the movie’s back-and-forth timeline structure. If viewers aren’t paying attention, they can mistake the scene of Jonathan meeting Stephen for the first time as something that took place in or close to 1990, not years earlier, as Jonathan quickly mentions in describing this flashback.

At any rate, even though Jonathan and Stephen have not been in contact for years, Stephen is one of the people whom Jonathan invites (by leaving a message with Stephen’s manager) to Jonathan’s “Superbia” workshop. There’s a scene where Jonathan somewhat desperately calls several people in an attempt to boost attendance at his workshop just a few days before it takes place.

Most of the criticism that “Tick, Tick…Boom!” might get is how it packs in a lot of issues within what’s supposed to be a very short timeline. There’s a point in the movie where Jonathan literally has less than 12 hours before the workshop and he still hasn’t written most of the “Suburbia” songs and he’s still struggling with the book for the musical. Whether someone is familiar with musical theater or not, the movie still has a timeline that’s kind of messy.

For example, it’s not adequately explained how Jonathan could be doing such a last-minute scramble to finish the musical’s songs the night before the workshop rehearsals. Certain scenes muddle the timeline on how much he needs to get done before the actual workshop. Certain parts of the movie go to great lengths to repeat that Jonathan hasn’t finished any songs for “Superbia” yet. And then, he talks about the one last song he really needs to finish is a pivotal song for the musical’s second act. But these deadline worries aren’t really shown in chronological order.

That’s why the workshop rehearsal scenes seem a little off-kilter. These brief rehearsals are hastily explained in the movie by having Jonathan showing up with sheet music for songs that might or might not be half-finished. Everyone in the group is expected to magically start playing and singing, as if they can easily learn this music and act like within minutes, they already know this music by heart. It’s a big leap and stretch of the imagination for the movie’s audience to take.

Instead of showing how he crafted these songs, the movie goes on a path of subplots and other tangents. You still won’t really know what “Superbia” is about by the end of the movie. If Jonathan doesn’t care enough about “Superbia” for it to be ready for the workshop, why should this movie’s viewers care? And maybe that’s the point, because the subplots are context to what ended up inspiring “Rent,” the real-life Larson’s best-known work.

One of the biggest themes in “Tick, Tick…Boom!” is the decisions that aspiring artists have to make between pursuing their artistic passion when it pays little or nothing, or giving it up to work full-time at a job that pays a steady income. Many artists who haven’t “made it” find a way to compromise, by having a day job to pay the bills and pursuing their artistic passion in their free time.

Jonathan is in that “in-between” zone, but he wonders out loud how much of a loser he might be if he keeps being a restaurant server well into his 30s. He likes his co-workers, but he knows the job doesn’t pay enough to get him out of his financial hole. However, working at the Moondance Diner is one of the few jobs he can get with the flexibility of work hours that can give him the time to work on his musicals.

Michael has already made his own decision on how he’s going to make living, and he’s at peace with giving up acting, because he considered himself to be a mediocre actor. Michael makes enough money at his ad agency job to move into an upscale apartment building and buy a BMW. Jonathan thinks Michael is being a sellout, because he thinks Michael gave up his real passion: being an actor.

Meanwhile, Michael thinks Jonathan should not give up his passion to be a musical theater writer because Michael thinks that Jonathan has extraordinary talent that should not be squandered. However, Michael thinks Jonathan needs to stop having a self-righteous attitude about being a starving artist and find a way to make more money so that Jonathan can be more financially responsible in paying basic bills. Jonathan and Michael have an argument about it, because in their own separate ways, Michael and Jonathan feel like the other one is being somewhat of a hypocrite in their career decisions.

In the “race against time” aspect of the “Superbia” workshop, Jonathan finds out that Ira won’t pay for the number of band musicians that Jonathan says he needs for the “Superbia” workshop. And so, there are scenes where Jonathan has to rush to find a way to come up with the money. As a last resort, he accepts Michael’s offer to be part of a paid focus group for the ad agency.

Jonathan’s participation in the focus group is one of the movie’s funnier scenes. He’s only in this focus group for the money. Jonathan has a deeply cynical attitude toward ad agencies, which he thinks are in the business of lying to “sell shit to people that they don’t need.” Laura Benanti portrays Judy, the ad agency’s slightly uptight leader of the focus group. Utkarsh Ambudkar has a comedic cameo as Todd, one of the gullible focus group participants. (In real life, Ambudkar and Miranda are two of the members of the performance group Freestyle Love Supreme.)

There are other issues in Jonathan’s life. He’s terrified of being considered a failure. Jonathan’s parents Nan (played by Judy Kuhn) and Al (played by Danny Burstein), who appear briefly in the movie, are emotionally supportive and not far from his mind, because he doesn’t want to be a disappointment to them. (In real life, Larson had a sister named Julie, but she’s not mentioned in the movie.) And then, certain people in the story have a health crisis that deeply affects many people.

It’s a lot to pack in a movie that’s a musical within a musical. Despite having a timeline that could’ve been been presented better, “Tick, Tick…Boom!” is able to rise above its flaws, thanks to stellar performances from the cast members. Garfield is the obvious standout. He’s able to convey genuine emotions without falling into the musical actor trap of over-emoting.

Shipp, Hudgens and de Jesus also have moments where they shine in the film. “Tick, Tick…Boom!” is not one of those musicals where only the musical numbers are the highlights. There are plenty of spoken-word-only dramatic moments that are among the best in the movie, particularly those that involve the friendship between Jonathan and Michael. As Jonathan’s jaded agent Rosa Stevens, Light plays her role for laughs, and it comes very close to being a parody of real-life agents.

And because “In the Heights” and “Hamilton” creator Miranda is considered Broadway royalty, it’s no surprise that several Broadway stars signed up for cameos in Miranda’s feature-film directorial debut. The most memorable, star-studded scene in “Tick, Tick…Boom!” is for the tune “Sunday,” which takes place at the Moondance Diner. It’s a fantasy sequence where Jonathan lifts up his hands, the front of the diner’s walls fall away, and the diner’s customers join in song.

And what a bunch of customers they are. It’s like a who’s who of Broadway: Chita Rivera, Bernadette Peters, Joel Grey, Phylicia Rashad, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, André Robin De Shields, Beth Malone and Howard McGillin. Also in this scene are “Hamilton” co-stars Renée Elise Goldsberry and Phillipa Soo, as well as original “Rent” Broadway co-stars Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Wilson Jermaine Heredia. Miranda has a cameo in this scene as a Moondance Diner cook.

An early highlight of the film is “No More,” performed by Garfield and de Jesús in an energetic song-and-dance duet about Jonathan and Michael expressing how they don’t want to be struggling artists anymore. Another standout is a cast rendition of “Boho Days,” performed at Jonathan’s birthday party and with Garfield on lead vocals. Shipp and Hudgens have their best moment in “Come to Your Senses” a powerful timeline-jumping duet that shows the characters of Susan and Karessa trading off lines of the song. And de Jesús will probably bring some viewers to tears with Michael’s heartbreaking performance of “Real Life.”

Other songs written or co-written by Larson that make it into the movie include “30/90,” “Out of My Dreams,” “Green Green Dress,” “Sugar,” “LCD Readout,” “Swimming,” Johnny Can’t Decide,” “Sextet,” “Therapy,” “Ever After,” “Debtor Club,” “Why,” “Come to Your Senses,” “Louder Than Words” and “Only Takes a Few.” “Play Game” is presented in the style of 1990s-styled rap video clip, with real-life rapper Tariq Trotter as the fictional rapper H.A.W.K. Smooth. The screenplay could have benefited from an improved structuring of its narrative, but the movie’s songs, performances and direction combine to create an enjoyable experience where the movie’s two-hour running time seems to fly by effortlessly.

Netflix released “Tick, Tick…Boom!” in select U.S. cinemas on November 12, 2021. The move premiered on Netflix on November 19, 2021.

Review: ‘In the Heights,’ starring Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Jimmy Smits

May 21, 2021

by Carla Hay

“In the Heights”

Directed by Jon M. Chu

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood, this movie version of the Tony-winning musical “In the Heights” features a predominantly Hispanic group of characters (with some African Americans and white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A young Dominican American man living in New York City’s Washington Heights is torn between staying in the neghborhood or moving to his family’s native Dominican Republic to re-open his late father’s tiki bar.

Culture Audience: “In the Heights” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in Broadway musicals with contemporary music and movies about Hispanic American culture.

Corey Hawkins and Melissa Grace in “In the Heights” (Photo by Macall Polay/Warner Bros. Pictures)

The movie adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical “In the Heights” brings a cinematic vibrancy that makes it a joy to watch on screen and an instant crowd-pleaser. The movie keeps the main storyline and themes intact from the Broadway show but adds some memorable set designs, eye-popping choreography and impressive visual effects that couldn’t be done in a theater stage production. And this well-cast movie also has standout performances that will be sure to charm fans of the Broadway show as well as win over new fans. The “In the Heights” movie is set to have its world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

Directed by Jon M. Chu, “In the Heights” has an adapted screenplay written by Quiara Alegría Hudes, who wrote the book for Broadway’s “In the Heights,” which takes place in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood. The movie version of “In the Heights” keeps the same songs from the stage musical, whose music and lyrics were written by Miranda. The movie is updated to include more social-awareness themes related to Dreamers, the nickname for undocumented children of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

The “In the Heights” movie, just like the stage musical, combines several character storylines in a tale that ultimately adds up to love in many different forms. There’s the love that 29-year-old protagonist/bodega owner Usnavi de la Vega (played by Anthony Ramos) has for his family, his Washington Heights neighborhood and his family’s native Dominican Republic. During the course of the story, he also falls in love with aspiring fashion designer Vanessa (played by Melissa Barrera), who also lives in Washington Heights. Usnavi is somewhat shy around assertive Vanessa, who plays hard to get, but eventually Vanessa falls for Usnavi too.

Romance is also in the air for car dispatch operator Benny (played by Corey Hawkins) and college student Nina Rosario (played by Leslie Grace), who has come home to Washington Heights while on a break from her studies at California’s Stanford University. Benny is easygoing and respectful, while Nina is intelligent and compassionate. Nina’s strong-willed and doting father also happens to be Benny’s boss: Rosario’s Car Service owner Kevin Rosario (played by Jimmy Smits), who is immensely proud that his daughter is a Stanford student, and he will do what it takes to pay her university tuition.

The beloved “grandmother” of the neighborhood is Abuela Claudia (played by Olga Merediz), who doesn’t have kids of her own, but she has a nuturing, maternal attitude toward many people in Washington Heights. Claudia is particularly close to Usnavi, whose parents are deceased. Usnavi, who is an only child, moved to the U.S. with his parents when he was 8 years old. And since his parents’ death, Usnavi has become even closer to Claudia. Meanwhile, Usnavi has also known Nina for several years, and he treats Nina like she’s his younger sister.

Usnavi is a mentor to his smart and wisecracking teenage cousin Sonny (played by Gregory Diaz IV), who works part-time in Usnavi’s bodega. Sonny needs a mentor because he has an alcoholic father named Gapo (played by Marc Anthony), who is the brother of Usnavi’s father. A local attorney named Alejandro (played by Mateo Gomez) plays a key role in facilitating what becomes Usnavi’s dream: to move back to the Dominican Republic and re-open a beachfront tiki bar called El Suenito that used to be owned by Usnavi’s late father.

Rounding out the story’s main characters are “The Salon Ladies,” a trio of sassy and opinionated beauty salon workers: Daniela (played by Daphne Rubin-Vega), who is the salon’s owner; Carla (played by Stephanie Beatriz), who is Daniela’s much-younger live-in lover; and Cuca (played by Dascha Polanco), who is their loyal sidekick friend. Vanessa works in the salon too, but she’d rather be a fashion designer. A graffiti artist named Graffiti Pete (played by Noah Catala) is one of Usnavi’s friends. There’s also a character named Pike Phillips (played by Patrick Page), who owns a dry cleaning business next door to Rosario’s Car Service, and he plays a role that affects the fate of a few of the characters’ fortunes.

“In the Heights” creator Miranda has a small role in the movie as a sarcastic street vendor named Piragüero, who sells piragua/shaved ice. Keep watching through the movie’s ending credits to see a comical scene of Miranda’s Piragüero getting into a spat with a Mr. Softee ice cream truck driver, played by Christopher Jackson, who is Miranda’s best friend and longtime Broadway co-star. It’s an example of the touches of humor in an otherwise dramatic story.

The movie begins with Usnavi in a tropical beach setting, telling four kids (about 4 to 6 years old) the story about his life in Washington Heights. The four children are Iris (played by Olivia Perez), Rosa (played by Analia Gomez), Sedo (played by Dean Vazquez) and Migo (played by Mason Vazquez). The kids are very attentive and adorable. But it’s clear that Iris is the most intelligent and inquisitive out of all of them.

Usnavi’s story is about the sweltering summer when he decided he was going to move back to the Dominican Republic and re-open El Suenito. What follows is an immersive, rollercoaster ride of a story, with plenty of joy, heartbreak, fear and love. It begins with various cast members performing “In the Heights,” in an epic sequence where viewers are introduced to Usnavi’s life in Washington Heights and all the people he’s close to in the neighborhood.

Other tunes performed by cast members in the movie are “Benny’s Dispatch,” “Breathe,” “You’ll Be Back” “No Me Diga,” “It Won’t Be Long Now,” “Cuando Llega el Tren,” “96,000,” “Piragua,” “Always,” “When You’re Home,” “The Club,” “Blackout,” “Paciencia Y Fe,” “Carnaval Del Barrio,” “Alabanza,” “Champagne,” “When the Sun Goes Down,” “Home All Summer” and “Finale.” Some of set designs for “In the Heights” are a visual treat and enhance these musical numbers. Two examples that are highlights are the massive synchronized swimming scene in a public swimming pool for “96,000,” and when Benny and Nina (with the help of visual effects) duet on “When You’re Home” with some gymnast-like moves on the side of an apartment building.

An electrical blackout happens in the middle of this summer heatwave. The movie has a timetable of events before and after the blackout. It’s a blackout that changes the lives of the characters, some more dramatically than others.

“In the Heights” is rich with Hispanic culture and doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable topics. Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Mexicans and people from Central and South America are celebrated in some way in the movie. And Usnavi’s desire to move back to the Dominican Republic is indicative of not only honoring his family but also reconnecting with his Dominican roots.

Nina represents the experience of people from Hispanic families who are the first to get a chance to graduate from a prestigious university in the United States. On the one hand, Nina is considered an exalted role model for the community and has all the pressures that come with it. On the other hand, Nina describes the pain of racism and not feeling like she fits in a privileged, predominantly white setting such as Stanford.

During a few of the movie’s more poignant scenes, Nina describes how her Stanford experience isn’t as glamorous as people in Washington Heights might think it is. Nina talks about how she was wrongfully accused of theft by her white Stanford roommate. And on another occasion, Nina attended a diversity dinner at Stanford, and someone wrongfully assumed that she was one of the servers.

All of the cast members are admirable in their roles, but the standouts are Ramos, Grace and Merediz, whose characters go through the biggest emotional arcs in the movie. Merediz’s performance of “Paciencia Y Fe” will simply give people chills. It’s the type of scene that will have audiences moved to applaud and cheer loudly. Grace is also a very talented singer/actress who can convincingly portray feelings without over-emoting like someone performing on a theater stage.

And as the story’s protagonist/narrator Usnavi, Ramos carries the movie with charm and vulnerability. He’s not super-confident when courting Vanessa, and he’s often teased about his insecurities by his observant cousin Sonny. For the two big romances in the movie (Usnavi and Vanessa; Benny and Nina), it isn’t about whether or not these two couples will get together. It’s more about if they can stay together, considering that they have long-distance issues that could wreck their relationships.

Whether or not people got a chance to see “In the Heights” on stage, the movie is a lively celebration in its own right. It’s a story with universal and relevant themes that can be understood by people of any generation. And the movie brings new dimensions and nuances to the story that will inspire people to see it multiple times, preferably on the biggest screen possible.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “In the Heights” in U.S. cinemas and on HBO Max on June 10, 2021. The release date was moved up from June 11, 2021.