Josh Reviews Tick, Tick… Boom!
Tick, Tick… Boom! is the feature film directorial debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda. The film was written by Steven Levenson, who won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Dear Evan Hansen. It’s an adaptation of the musical by Jonathan Larson, best known as the creator of Rent. So, this film is the production of some extremely talented people! Tick, Tick… Boom! is an autobiographical story based on Mr. Larson’s pre-Rent days as a dirt-poor waiter living in New York City and struggling to break through into the world of musical theater. Days before his thirtieth birthday, Jonathan is preparing to stage a workshop of Superbia, the sci-fi rock musical he has been toiling over for years. He’s piled all his hopes and dreams onto the success of that workshop, worrying that if he can’t make anything happen for himself before turning thirty, then maybe it’s too late and nothing will ever happen.
This has been quite a year for Lin-Manuel Miranda! Delayed by the pandemic, In the Heights — an adaptation of Mr. Miranda’s musical — was released. (It’s terrific and hugely underrated.) I liked the animated musical Vivo (for which he wrote all of the songs and voiced the title character) and I LOVED Encanto (the recent Disney film for which Mr. Miranda wrote the songs — my review is coming soon), and now there is Tick, Tick… Boom!, the first feature film Mr. Miranda has directed.
The film is fantastic. You’d never know this is Mr. Miranda’s first film. I was impressed by the film’s layered narrative structure — the film is framed by Jonathan Larson’s performance in 1992 of his show Tick, Tick… Boom!, which of course is also the story being told in this film adaptation. So the film is basically a series of flashbacks allowing us to see and follow the dramatic week in Jonathan’s life in 1990 that he was singing about in 1992. Within that, of course, many of the musical sequences are themselves enjoyably playful flights of fancy that jump all over the place and move from reality to fantasy and back again. It’s all skillfully done and never feels confusing or overwrought. The film has a strong narrative energy that kept me hooked. Indeed, the film is so intense that I found it sometimes a little stressful to watch! Mr. Miranda managed to brilliantly capture that intense, “every day might be the most important day of my life” feeling that young people — especially young wannabe artists — often have. The film captures those big feelings and swirling cauldrons of emotion and manages to push those feelings through the screen and right into the viewer watching.
Andrew Garfield plays Jonathan Larson, and it is a bravura performance, absolutely spectacular. Mr. Garfield owns this film and he carries the film on his back. I’ve enjoyed Mr. Garfield’s work over the years, particularly in The Social Network. (However, I was very disappointed by both of his Amazing Spider-Man films; I blame the filmmakers more than him, but the end result was I felt his interpretation of Peter Parker was all wrong; this arrogant, brash, and dour person was not Peter Parker to me.) And so it is enormous fun to watch with admiration as Mr. Garfield absolutely blows the roof off of this film. He is tremendous, a pent-up ball of energy — watching his character, I kept waiting for the …Boom! of the film’s title. Mr. Garfield is able to be incredibly charismatic as Jonathan; we can see that this young person has greatness within him, and we can see why his friends are attached to him. At the same time, Mr. Garfield plays Jonathan as an emotional open book, showing us all of his doubts and fears and insecurities. Jonathan behaves poorly at times, and yet Mr. Garfield and the film play things just right so we never hate him; we’re always rooting for him to succeed and achieve his dreams. It’s a skillfully nuanced performance. Also: I had no idea Mr. Garfield was such a great singer! He sings his heart out in this film and I thought he was absolutely terrific.
Obviously, the tragedy that Jonathan Larson died the day before Rent’s off-Broadway premiere hangs over this film. We’re watching Jonathan Larson fear that his time is ticking away to accomplish all that he dreams of accomplishing, and we know that this isn’t just the self-obsession of a young person but that in fact he is going to turn out to be right. That sadness colors everything on screen… and yet, I was pleased by how joyous and life-affirming the story was, in the end!
I loved the music. I’m not a big musical fellow, but there were some terrific songs in this film. (There were also, apparently, a ton of cameos of famous Broadway performers, though most of them went over my head. I did recognize Bebe Neuwirth, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, and Phylicia Rashad!)
Alexandra Shipp (criminally underused as Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix) is vibrant and joyful as Jonathan’s on-again off-again girlfriend Susan. Robin de Jesús is beautifully compelling and heartbreaking as Jonathan’s friend and former roommate Michael. Jonathan Henry and Vanessa Hudgens are terrific as two performers in the Superbia workshop (as well as the Tick, Tick… Boom! framing sequences). MJ Rodriguez and Ben Levi Ross are great as Jonathan’s fellow employees at the Moondance Diner, where Jonathan works on the weekends. Bradley Whitford is perfection as Stephen Sondheim. (He’s so perfect that I didn’t notice the switch that an important voicemail that Mr. Sondheim leaves for Jonathan late in the film was actually voiced by the real Stephen Sondheim!) Richard Kind kills in one scene as a blustery fellow giving Jonathan some negative feedback, and Judith Light is hilarious in her handful of scenes as Jonathan’s sort-of agent.
I love stories that are about the often-painful process of creating art. Those aspects of Tick, Tick… Boom! were particularly engaging and moving to me. It’s tough to depict that sort of thing on-screen, but this film does a fantastic job of conveying the pleasure and the agony of the process.
I’m so happy to have seen this film! I really enjoyed this one.
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