Tick, Tick... Boom! A Love Letter to Art and the Artist

Dec 28

Moviegoer Rating: ★★★★★

I don’t need to convince you to watch tick tick… Boom!, the film adaptation of Jonathan (creator of the revolutionary rock musical Rent) Larson’s autobiographical musical about living in the pressure cooker of eighties New York and trying to make his big break before the age of 30. “Older than Stephen Sondheim and Paul McCartney” when they achieved fame. Gasp!

I only need to convince you to watch the first ten minutes, long enough to hear Andrew Garfield stunningly belt the hilarious, emotional, and purely addictive opener “30/90” about Jon’s aversion to turning 30 in 1990, and you won’t be able to tear yourself away from the screen for the rest of the movie. It’s a hell of an opener to a must-see movie, one I hope you’ll hurry to Netflix to see after I rest my case.

We follow Jon as he scrambles to finish his sci-fi rock opera just before its workshop debut. While he frantically searches for inspiration to write the final song, he faces mounting pressure. His girlfriend, Susan, is leaving behind her dancing career in New York City for a more stable gig upstate and wants Jon’s honest opinion. He craves his friend Michael’s stability and wealth. The AIDS epidemic threatens to take the life of one of his friends.

Jon is a deeply flawed character. He’s selfish in valuing his own artistic pursuits over Susan’s needs, dismissive of Michael’s chosen corporate lifestyle in advertising, and occasionally arrogant about his own musical prowess. But he’s also a deeply sympathetic protagonist who acknowledges his faults and strives to do better, namely by allowing his art to be guided by love rather than fear. The movie does a great job of centering Jon while still fleshing out the secondary characters, imbuing them with motivations and needs of their own.

As a musical, tick tick… Boom! checks two obvious boxes: great songs and an impeccable cast that can actually sing them (sorry, La La Land). The cast is helmed by powerhouse Garfield at his career-best and, shockingly, his musical debut. Beyond their physical similarities, Garfield also nails Larson’s mannerisms. As a character, Jon is at once unflappable and self-critical, with Garfield delivering just the right amount of confidence in his performance. Also notable is Robin de Jesús performance as Michael. Garfield and de Jesús share believable chemistry in their roles as childhood friends, and de Jesús manages to portray Michael’s unabashed honesty without a hint of cruelty. And did I mention they can both really sing?

Beyond its strong cast and musical foundations, tick tick… Boom! is also a genuinely good movie. What sets it apart from so many other movie musicals is that it takes full creative advantage of the medium. I was so disappointed by Dear Evan Hansen earlier this year, not just for its casting woes and questionable plot tweaks, but for its total lack of creativity in translation from stage to screen. This article brutally but accurately critiques Ben Platt’s “bizarre styling”, which makes him look creepily old for high school romance. Evan Hansen, a morally grey character, is also given a redemption arc in the film that contradicts the moral lessons of the musical. As for its cinematic makeover, the suburban teen drama certainly doesn’t require grandiose sets (like 2012’s Les Miserables), but even the musical’s best numbers were dull on-screen, impeded by what felt like laziness on the part of the filmmakers. Evan Hansen just fell flat for me, so I was elated that tick tick… Boom! didn’t suffer from the same missteps.

I’ve never seen Larson’s musical so I’m confined to comment on the film alone, but I have to commend Lin-Manuel Miranda on his inventiveness. I should add that Miranda, another figure known for modernizing theater, was a very fitting choice for director. At first, the storytelling is a bit confusing. We’re watching Jon perform tick tick… Boom! in a black box theater, while simultaneously the same songs provide the backdrop to his life unfolding offstage. Miranda navigates these parallel stories with dexterity, and once I got the hang of the split narrative, I appreciated how much the format serves the portrayal of Jon’s character. Against the theatrics of the typical story, the unembellished black box performance grounds the movie and injects humility into Larson’s legacy.

This parallel story format isn’t Miranda’s only avenue for ingenuity. A standout number is “Sunday”, a sarcastic tribute to a busy morning at the Moondance diner, where Jon waits tables. Miranda brought in a slew of Broadway stars to play the annoyed diner patrons, who pester an overwhelmed Jon for their breakfast, including Hamilton alumni Phillipa Soo and Renée Elise Goldsberry. The sequence also features an awesome set, and as the diner breaks into song, the walls fall away, Jon becoming the conductor of the scene in the diner and Manhattan streets just outside. “Sunday” parodies a number by Sondheim, Jon’s musical idol and occasional mentor (Sondheim fans will appreciate the reference, especially in light of his recent passing), and Garfield absolutely nails the passive-aggressive humor of the song.

The only flaw is the slapdash montage of a finale. Susan narrates the pillars of Larson’s posthumous success after the story is over — Larson died the morning of Rent's first Off-Broadway preview performance — accompanied by photos and videos of both Larson and Garfield as Jon (I couldn’t tell what was real and what was fictional). The sequence yanked me away from the story, and although tick tick… Boom! is autobiographical, the montage felt more suited to a documentary. I think many viewers will disagree with me, and I’ll admit that it serves as a nice explicit tribute to Larson and his limited but profound body of work. But a tribute could have been more seamlessly included in a dedication before the credits, separate from the story itself.

This ending is a minor flaw in an otherwise pretty flawless movie. Under Miranda’s imaginative direction and with strong performances all around, tick tick… Boom! wholly succeeds as both a musical and movie. It’s entertaining, heartfelt, and not only a love letter to Jonathan Larson but anyone who has toiled and sacrificed in pursuit of creativity.