Review : tick, tick... BOOM! (2021)
Somehow, this past week has found my film world consumed by the presence of Andrew Garfield. It all started when I invited a friend over for a movie night, and out of the thousands of options available, we landed on Under the Silver Lake. Cut to my normal rotation of YouTube viewing over the next few days where Vee Infuso, the Corridor Crew, Elvis The Alien and Trin Lovell (among possibly many many more) all did takes urging viewers to reconsider their stances on the two Amazing Spider-Man films, famously anchored by Garfield in the titular role. All of this would have been enough, but as many of you know, I’m deep in the midst of making sure my 2021 film slate is covered, so naturally, the next film in the queue turned out to be tick, tick... BOOM!, a highly stylized retelling of the Jonathan Larson story, particularly his breakthrough rock monologue that shares the film title and set up the runaway success of Rent.
If 8 1/2 is on one end of the self-referential, inward fourth wall breaking cinema spectrum, and Adaptation is on the other, then I would say that tick, tick... BOOM! serves as a music-filled median. The film has self-awareness built into its mix, with actual friends and footage from the Jonathan Larson circle intertwined with identical remake footage featuring Andrew Garfield right from the jump, and with this immersion and integration going wheels up immediately, the illustration of how frustrating and spirit breaking the journey of life-altering inspiration can be is given extra lift due to the presentation style. The all-to-familiar struggle of the starving artist serves as the engine for tension, with that presence literally becoming personified by a ticking clock that is both a symbolic and on the nose motif, particularly with those familiar of just how brief Larson’s window of success was due to his untimely passing. Like Rent, tick, tick... BOOM! is a modern presentation of the traditional musical with narrative threads that focus on the perils of romance, writer’s block, personal responsibility and financial responsibility, but unlike Rent, which is meant to appeal to a wide range of people with similar experiences, this story travels outward from deep within the wells of Jonathan Larson’s memory and legacy.
With the current vanguard of music theater Lin-Manuel Miranda in the director’s chair, it’s no surprise that the edgy (in the most positive aspects of the definition) and visceral work of Jonathan Larson is given a bold translation on the screen. tick, tick... BOOM! contains a collection of some of the most standout film songs I’ve seen in years, with a long list of standout material... 30/90, the super catchy earworm Boho Days, Johnny Can’t Decide, the star-studded and subtle Sunday, the painfully beautiful Therapy, the show-stopping Come To Your Senses, Real Life and Louder Than Words all occupy space and time in the mind long after the final credit has rolled on the film. Miranda handles tempo and pacing of all elements well, allowing the pendulum to swing freely between dramatic and musical passages, and spending the most time within that middle ground were the elements are braided together. As a result of allowing these dramatic and music elements to dance with one another without putting limits on their interaction, we are shown many levels and shades of the human interaction, all on a playing field that is bound by joy, humor, depression and frustration.
Cinematography-wise, the camerawork stays deeply intimate and in the face of all parties involved, giving viewers the feeling of living in and sharing spaces with the Bohemian crowd that Larson and company symbolized, which in turn makes our emotional reactions resonate deeper during the on-screen journey. Much of the film is draped in a 1970s-styled and influenced take on the eve of the 1990s, with different flashes of hopefully and colorful brilliance breaking up the heaviness of the created world. As mentioned several times prior, there are a menagerie of presentation styles, up to, including but not limited to dramatic swings between old school and modern musicals, reality television (which this project pre-dated in real life), testimonial theater, biopics and so much more. You can feel the respect, admiration and love for Jonathan Larson in the way that Lin-Manuel Miranda directs, not to mention the same respect, admiration and love for the greater New York theatrical community that allowed Miranda to rise to prominence. The sound design and editing keep the energy going at a very freeing level, even when we are up to our eyeballs in deeply relatable tension. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the film is the fact that it is a period picture that doesn’t necessarily announce itself as such, with elements of AIDS, capitalism, the moral majority and their attempts at iron-fist fundamentalist rule, cultural shifts and more all serving as supporting elements for the deeply personal tale.
Andrew Garfield swings for the fences in his portrayal of Jonathan Larson, embracing every aspect of life fulfillment and inspiration chasing that he can while exuding the frustration of chasing the inspiration dragon and trying to balance some semblance of a fruitful relationship and personal responsibilities, and all in the name of producing forward-thinking and joy inducing work... don’t be surprised if you see Garfield pop up in the Best Actor nominations. Alexandra Shipp (who, as an aside, bears a striking resemblance to Robin Givens at times) plays the romantic foil with the confidence of a deeply focused woman longing for a grand display to shake her world up, all the while exuding shades of unconditional and tough love. Robin de Jesús shines in his role, managing to keep up with the high bar set by Garfield via an ability to swing between a Bohemian free spirit and a man forced to buy in to the American dream with equal ease, making his story arc one of the more powerful in the film. Joshua Henry and Vanessa Hudgens both have small dramatic moments where they make the most of the opportunity, but both really come through in the clutch during the performance scenes of the in-film tick, tick... BOOM! show that ties the film together. Jonathan Marc Sherman and Judith Light embody “stereotypical” aspects of the New York theatrical experience without succumbing to the full-scale caricature realm, while Bradley Whitford really shines in his portrayal of Stephen Sondheim (who himself makes a vocal cameo in the film). The cast of tick, tick... BOOM! is massive, but other standout appearances include Mj Rodriguez, Ben Levi Ross and the rest of the diner crew, the living legend Tariq Trotter, a couple of hilarious Jelani Alladin moments and, as previously mentioned, a literal who’s who of the New York theatrical royalty in the Sunday number.
Lin-Manuel Miranda ought to be happy this upcoming February, as he will more than likely find himself in competition with himself for songs from In The Heights and tick, tick... BOOM!, putting him in the rare air that has lately been occupied solely by the likes of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It also makes sense to my why Andrew Garfield has been so adamant about not being a part of the insanity that has been the run up to Spider-Man: No Way Home, as the daunting shadow that surrounds most any Marvel release would draw away from his stellar work in tick, tick... BOOM!, specifically his incredibly touching portrayal of the iconic Jonathan Larson. All in all, this might be one of the strongest efforts put forth by Netflix as a production studio, and in a year where the musical is clawing its way back into cultural relevancy, this is a bright shining star in a galaxy finding its light.