Washington Heights

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS (2003) **1/2 Tomas Milian, Manny Perez, Danny Hoch, Jude Ciccolella, Andrea Navedo, Bobby Cannavale, David Zayas, Callie Thorne, Judy Reyes. Well-acted morality tale about a talented illustrator (Perez) with dreams of having his own comic book finds himself trapped in the titular neighborhood where he is forced to aid his recently stricken father (Milian) to run the family bodega. Conflicts and conscience run high with the feel of early Lumet or Lee thanks to newcomer Alfredo De Villa's use of digital video to give the film a feeling of intimacy and closeness that parallels the claustrophobia felt by the main characters. Familiar yet watchable.

Starring Tomas Milian and Manny Perez – 'Washington Heights' is a low budget drama set in a Latino neighborhood in NYC.

A young comic-book artist (Manny Perez) wants to escape his Latino neighborhood. When his father is crippled by a robber's gunshot, the young man is forced to run the family bodega.

The movie was shot in a budget (low resolution video and poor audio) with low profile actors.

The plot flowed well for 85 minutes but the last 5 minutes were just terrible. We don't know for sure if Perez and his girlfriend remained together and if Angel ended-up in jail for the shooting.

4/10

"Washington Heights" is a gritty slice of life and death in a New York City neighborhood near the George Washington Bridge. A young artist and illustrator is struggling to find his place and work and has female problems as well. After his father, a bodega owner, is shot and paralyzed by a robber, the artist must take over the store, and discovers other problems, one of which shows him some direction. A good storyline, editing, and performances make this film a success. I did not feel like a distant observer--I was drawn in quickly--a good sign.

Washington Heights is geared toward the Latino community. A nice movie about a small community inside a giant New York city. Much like its audience, the movie itself was made by the efforts of Latinos. While the movie focuses on the main character and his interactions with his friends, enemies, parents, and girlfriend, the movie's strongest link is the side story of the Father. It is the relationship between the Father and the Son that keeps many audience members interested in what is going to happen next. Instead, the story jumps too much between the side stories of the friend who wants to go bowling, his girlfriend who is making dresses, and the neighborhood that jumps in and out of everybody's lives without warning. In the end, a nice story that hits home on many levels. The story about a father and a son who were never Father and Son is the strongest link in this movie's chain.

I really liked this film mostly because i can relate with the main character, being latino and his situation with his art. Heights is a good film but it suffers from some mayor flaws. The simple fact is that the audience is cut off to the emotional climax. The reason? Bad editing? perhaps. Even though we get some climax with the father and son character, the relationship of the two lovers never comes to fruit actually their problems are never fully explained. This left me at least confused by the death of their relationship. Lack of resolution seems to be the main flaw of this movie, the conflict between the best friend and his father was never resolved. I know its hard to put all of this in the film since the film makers wanted to leave enough room about the main character and his father but perhaps these other situations should not have been brought up since it only leads away from the core of this movie. In the end Washington Heights is a good film and i would recomend it and im sorry to see that it was overlooked by some critics.