There is something truly extraordinary that separates Tick, tick…Boom! From other big-screen musicals. The Lin-Manuel Miranda directed and scored musical biopic about Rent uber genius Jonathan Larson just simply soars, inspires, and will leave audiences cheering, tearing, and primed to tackle all the dreams you can dream. Rent’s journey from the back of Larson’s brain to a full-fledged cultural sensation is documented creatively and impeccably.
Andrew Garfield stars as Larson and as the film commences, he is an unproduced musical theater writer with an obvious gift for writing remarkable, catchy, and insightful songs that drive narratives that enrapture their audience.
He’s frustrated. The pressure is real, especially because his big 3-0 birthday is merely days away and that time marker is excruciatingly sharp this particular year. He continually reminds us that Stephan Sondheim (Bradley Whitfield) had his first musical hit at the age of twenty-seven. Larson has a production he thinks is “the one” to catapult him into the public consciousness while entertaining and changing the world. He’s working towards a workshop that his agent promises will be filled with producers and those who possess the power to a festering, almost finished idea and turn it into the stuff that wins Tonys and sells millions of tickets.
Larson has his BFF, who he’s known since elementary school. Although Michael (Robin de Jesus) was in the theater arts as well—acting—he has walked away from that vocation and has currently embraced corporate America with its higher salaries, health insurance, pension, and a pretty luxe life. His support for Larson is unwavering. His belief in the fact that his friend’s creativity borders on G-d given gifts pushes him to keep the encourage faucet flowing without interruption.
Their relationship is powerful and anchors much of Tick, tick… Boom! It humanizes the beloved Tony-winning and Pulitzer Prize-winning Larson and allows us a front seat to the self-doubt and troubles that one goes through consistently to not merely quit, but to leave “the life” completely behind. Instead, it is these visits and conversations with Michael that catapult the composing mastermind to keep on a path that has so far taken 8 years of his twenties and as he knocks on the door of thirty, the internal doubt meter fluctuates, but usually finds itself near the red.
Thanks to the captivating screenplay by Steven Levenson (based on the musical by Larson) their conversations are fresh, raw, and real. It doesn’t just feel like dialogue and it’s not just these two. Throughout with a myriad of characters (including a nice relationship documented by Levenson with Sondheim), Levenson’s work feels about as conversational as movies can accomplish. Which is unreal, especially concerning we are working in the milieu that is musicals. It also doesn’t shy away from the tough issues facing the theater community in the early 90s, most notably AIDS. Larson has attended more of those rites of passage than he ever thought he’
There’s even a romantic cull between Larson and his patient (yet frustrated) Susan (Alexandra Shipp, Love Simon) who adores her other half, but as the calendars’ months turn after turn, the actress portrays an understanding exasperation that is the ultimate in actor’s needles to thread. It’s an emotionally painful aspect of Miranda’s film that the filmmaker smartly framed as a spoke in the wheel that is pursuing a dream in show business and that cutting off your limb type of sacrifices that are often required to experience in order to see the dream come to fruition.
Garfield is a revelation. He’s teased this excellence in previous work, especially his turn in director Mel Gibson’s stunning Hacksaw Ridge, fresh off his brilliant work in The Social Network and this year’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye. What the American-born, British-raised actor accomplished in Tick, tick…Boom! is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for audiences. He so immerses himself in the larger-than-life character that is the real-life Jonathan Larson. It is mesmerizing. Garfield is a lock for an Oscar nomination and even if he doesn’t emerge victoriously, there will surely be a little gold, bald man in his future.
This becomes clear throughout, but none more earth-shaking than at the conclusion of the film. Credits roll and clips are played off the real man silently doing his thing and thanks to Garfield it is about as seamless as is humanly possible.
Tick, tick…Boom! also highlights the range of Shipp. It might have been easy to be overshadowed by your co-star in any given scene given the hurricane he’s crafting. Not Shipp. She plays off with the ebbs and flows of Garfield’s turn, as well as the emotive roller-coaster that is Tick, tick… Boom! De Jesus straddles a fine line that is pure gold. The way that he is no wallflower to his driven friend should have been a clue of things to come throughout Miranda’s narrative. He has his reasons for walking away from “the life” and as laid out by de Jesus feels as organic as the thespian arts can achieve.
If there was one complaint it would be a wish that there was more with Vanessa Hudgens as songstress Karessa. The High School Musical veteran has had the most successful of post HHM credits and name recognition. She is definitely a second-tier character and keenly knows her place in the overall narrative. Boy oh boy, does she maximize her screentime in the most electric of ways that never eclipses the entire production. The actress needs to do more in this arena. One can see why she has done less than more musical projects is clear. No one wants to be pigeonholed. Now that she has proven herself in a variety of projects (from Spring Breakers to My Pony: A New Generation. But with the release of Tick, tick… Boom! look for more song and dance from the High School Musical graduate.
Miranda and Levenson are a stellar creative pair. Their ability to craft a story chock full of divine musical interludes that simultaneously incorporates all the elements that made Rent the institution that it is a monumental achievement. Although Larson struggles immensely financially and personally, there is hardly a frame of Miranda’s film that doesn’t contain a little gold nugget of information about this story or the one being created at the heart of Tick, tick… Boom!
The director is prolific, for that there is no question. Just earlier this year (also on Netflix) he penned all the tracks to the animated music Vivo and starred in the charming and animated feature for the streaming service. Before that, he’s personally and universally adored musical menagerie was In the Heights—which itself was a salute to Latin society and its cultural elements washing over the American landscape. Now, there is no guarantee that a performer can successfully make the leap into the dog-eat-dog world of cinema after years of consummate experience on the Broadway stage. That is exactly what Miranda has achieved and it should be an inspiration to all walks of life—regardless of one’s vocation, location, or past. His ability to pen songs that progress the narrative of the story and just on their own are complete bangers is unmatched at this moment in our cultural calendar… if ever!
Tick, tick… Boom! is a love letter to theatric arts and everyone who either dabbles in it or the tens of thousands who make it their life as if it is a calling and not a choice. Personally, I worked for years behind-the-scenes of plays and musicals. It was a blissful joy being part of something artistic where all were on the same team, trying ever harder. Miranda’s film (airing on Netflix and in limited theaters) is a sure-fire Oscar contender.
It is just a question of how many nominations.
Pardon me for one personal reflection. As a survivor of both an Aortic Dissection and an Aortic Aneurysm, I knew going on that Larson passed literally hours before his cultural zeitgeist moment opened in Rent. It still didn’t make it any easier on the soul to witness this life lost way too soon—Larson perished at the age of thirty-five. After bouts of “why was I saved and this individual who has already gifted the world a seismic change—not to mention what else he could have accomplished given the time—and blinding excitement spurred by the Tick, tick…Boom! rolling inspiration machine was the most unique of emotive experiences for this writer.
In the end, primarily, Miranda’s film is a lesson in never giving up, listening to that voice in your gut spurring you on, and living life to its fullest, all while making tomorrow is far from guaranteed an unforgettable mantra.
Grade: A+