REVIEW #112 Tick…Tick…Boom (2021)

Tick…Tick…Boom is a Netflix film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and it’s based on the autobiographical Musical by playwright Jonathan Larson. Following him during his late 20’s as an aspiring composer who is questioning his career choice and juggles work, dreams and love.

CAST & THE ACTING 

Andrew Garfield is Jonathan Larson and he absolutely kills it, it’s hard to find the words to do his performance justice. Everything from his physical movement to his vocals just creates the perfect blend of drama and musical. What I love about Garfield is his ability to physically portray such strong emotions, just his facial expressions can make you understand the raw emotion that his character is feeling. The vocals from the rest of the cast are also fantastic as you would expect from a musical. However I want to mention Robin De Jesus and Alexandra Shipp who both delivered really strong performances as Michael and Susan respectively. De Jesus especially, for a film focusing on one key character (Jonathan Larson) he done so well to shift the audiences focus onto his character Michael. Portraying his struggles so convincingly, creating really emotional scenes that effect the audience. I would say those were the only performances that were worth mentioning, everyone else was mainly utilised for the songs and musical elements of the film. 

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

I am not usually a fan of musicals, purely because the majority do come across as a little cheesy but Tick…Tick…Boom really made me think that I should give the genre more of my attention. As I mentioned in the previous category it was a nice blend of drama and musical which hooks the audience on the character and flexes in the musical sequences organically. The switch between the stage show of the autobiographical musical and his actual life was a nice way to tell the story and I felt perfectly summarised Jonathan Larson’s personality, a man with such love and talent for musical theatre, to the point where he was making songs about every aspect of his life. It also touched upon social issues during that time period such as gay people not being able to marry and the HIV outbreak and the panic surrounding that. I think the film handled it sensitively and the subject really made you form an emotional connecting with the character Michael. I did feel like the ending was a little rushed, suddenly jumping from his 30th birthday to his death and not fleshing out any of the time in between, except a brief narration from Susan. You could probably fit a sequel just on that time period!

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

I really liked how the scenes were pieced together, the careful placement of the normal life scenes transitioning into the autobiographical stage narration or vice versa really created an effective method of storytelling. They also blended the two for some scenes, for example Larson is walking through the park, emotional due to the bad news he had just received from Michael and then it sort of turns into a monologue of his feelings as he plays the piano. The park almost turns into a stage as a spotlight shines on him. That scene is really nice and the transition was nice and smooth. I don’t think there were any special effects used, perhaps a little bit of green screen at times, like when we see Michael’s expensive apartment for the first time the view seemed like CGI instead of just filming from a building in New York which I didn’t like but I could have that wrong. Overall the cinematography was good, with the clear aim to blend the theatre with film.

OVERALL (8.5/10)

I really liked Tick…Tick…Boom, Andrew Garfield is brilliant and really steals the show. The storyline is both engaging, entertaining and at times really emotional that takes the audience on a journey along with Jonathan Larson. As I have mentioned I’m usually not a fan of musicals but those sequences blended into the film nicely and the transitions were so natural and organic, so it didn’t come across as cheesy at all. I would say the ending felt very rushed, that was a disappointment but it was a heartfelt ending nonetheless. It did make me come away and research even more about Jonathan Larson and is life, I didn’t know anything about him going into the film but I do think it done him Justice and showed him as a great man! So definitely give it a go, you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks for reading 

Callan