NEW YORK (AP) — A street-level song-and-dance spectacle to rival the MGM musicals of old, “In the Heights” is an exuberant celebration of the Latino immigrant experience, of a neighborhood, of a teeming summertime New York, of life. Originally slated to be released last June, “In the Heights” arrives already engulfed with the aura of cultural event for one of the movies’ most blatantly underseen communities. And as a big-screen party, “In the Heights” is poised to rekindle the euphoric, dancing-the-aisles theatrical experience that’s been all but snuffed out over the past year. It’s one massive reminder of what we’ve been missing, on screen and off, the past pandemic year. Director Jon M. Chu calls “a vaccine of joy.”
