As the awards and nominations for tick, tick…BOOM! (2021) come pouring in, I just want to certify that this film has further solidified the fact that we’re living in the Andrew Garfield Renaissance era. I had really high expectations going into this and was ridiculously charmed by 30/90 in the opening minutes. Andrew Garfield wonderfully embodied the voice (how is this the man’s first musical?!) and the spirit of Jonathan Larson as he navigates the struggles of being an aspiring playwright in NYC, against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis in the early 90s. The film artfully deals with the conflict between the important relationships in his life and his unwavering desire to make it big. However, there’s something about live-action movie adaptations of musicals that has always felt a little jarring and unnatural to me, as opposed to the same songs being performed on stage or the movie version of Hamilton (2020) – which was simply a recording of the Broadway play. Speaking of, it was certainly strange to watch a Lin-Manuel Miranda project without hearing his very distinct brand of musicality and lyricism, although they did sneak in cameos of several members of the original Hamilton cast (including Miranda himself), among many other Broadway legends.
tick, tick…BOOM! ended up feeling a tad overlong, with a significant lull in energy in the second half. Although I know the movie is based on Larson’s 2004 musical of the same name, I wish they’d focused a little more on Rent (1994), instead of the virtual footnote we got seconds before the credits rolled. After all the build-up about Larson’s journey to produce a successful musical, the ending left me wishing for a more gratifying pay-off. I do think I’m coming off as rather harsh; the movie was, all things considered, eminently watchable. The performance of Louder Than Words was absolutely stunning, and the soft lapse into the Happy Birthday song towards the end felt perfectly symbolic of the trepidation, nostalgia and sense of hope that accompanies a 30th birthday. Like others, I wish Jonathan Larson had been able to witness the many ways in which his legacy would be honoured in the years following his untimely death.
tick, tick…BOOM! gets a solid 3/5 from me – watch it for a fun time and also to be thoroughly moved.
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