Tick, Tick… Boom! – Film Review

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his feature directorial debut with tick, tick…BOOM!, an adaptation of the autobiographical musical by Jonathan Larson, who revolutionized theater as the creator of Rent. The film follows Jonathan (Andrew Garfield), a young theater composer who’s waiting tables at a New York City diner in 1990 while writing what he hopes will be the next great American musical.

Days before he’s due to showcase his work in a make-or-break performance, Jon is feeling the pressure from everywhere: from his girlfriend Susan, who dreams of an artistic life beyond New York City; from his friend Michael (Robin de Jesús), who has moved on from his dream to a life of financial security; amidst an artistic community being ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. With the clock ticking, Jon is at a crossroads and faces the question everyone must reckon with: What are we meant to do with the time we have?

Those that know me well know that I absolutely love a great musical. It’s funny because, although I’ve never actually been to a Broadway show in person, I’ve seen many of them online and I’ve cherished almost every single one I’ve watched. Of course, there’s Waitress and Dear Evan Hansen, but few people knew how to make a wonderfully riveting musical as much as the late Jonathan Larson did.

Larson had some genuinely huge and ambitious ideas and he spent several years trying to perfect his work, ensuring that his musicals were as excellent as they could possibly be. This is why I was really hoping Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new film Tick, Tick… Boom! would do Larson’s life and career justice, and I’m so glad to report that it definitely did. This is an extremely fast-paced and fluid movie with some of the most memorable musical numbers I’ve seen in quite a long time.

There is an undeniable sense of love and warmth emanating from the screenplay by Steven Levenson who also wrote the script for this year’s Dear Evan Hansen adaptation which was met with… well, let’s just say less than favorable reviews. I personally enjoyed that film and I actually kind of adored the music in it, but there’s no denying that Tick, Tick… Boom! is a better film on almost all fronts.

Similar to Damien Chazelle‘s critically lauded La La Land, this film is about those who dream and stop at absolutely nothing to get what they want no matter how many obstacles get in their way. I love movies that inspire people – the types of movies that, after you watch them, you want to get up and do a few things differently in life to see if maybe you, too, can achieve your dreams. Thankfully though, Tick, Tick… Boom! doesn’t go about this in a cheesy or ridiculous way.

Sometimes it can be incredibly annoying to hear somebody tell you “You can be anything you want to be”, because there are definitely some days where you feel like that’s a bunch of lies and it’s just never going to happen. But this film does a wonderful job at displaying just how successful one can be if they simply continue working on themselves and perfecting their craft. You may not get everything you want out of life but that’s okay because as long as you are happy and content with where you are, that’s what is most important.

And when it comes to Andrew Garfield in this movie? He absolutely knocks it out of the park in every single scene. Although he is definitely best known for portraying Peter Parker / Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man series of films, he definitely does have quite a few other dramatic roles out there that are incredible, but his work here as Jonathan Larson is without a doubt among his best.

Whenever a scene calls for him to be lively and vibrant, Garfield more than rises to the occasion. But, on the other hand, whenever the script calls for him to be absolutely crushed and feeling down on himself, he does so just as effortlessly. It’s the kind of performance that you just can’t help but smile while watching the whole time. Alexandra Shipp also gets a respectable and much-appreciated supporting role here, although it definitely would’ve been nice to have seen her character fleshed out a bit more.

And seeing as how this is a musical, you’d hope that the music in it is great – it most definitely is here. There are a handful of songs in this movie that are certainly going to be stuck in my head for a long time to come. Everybody that worked on this film came together and made sure that they brought their A-game, and they succeeded in virtually every regard. Technically, this movie is brilliant.

But it’s also brilliant in every other way too. Tick, Tick… Boom! is one of the best musical films in years and I think it’ll be quite helpful and important for those out there that are struggling with finding themselves or are simply finding themselves getting stuck in their creative endeavors. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film is sure to make you ponder life and career, as well as laugh, cry, and sing along. It’s simply delightful.