• Lin-Manuel Miranda is already long since a household name to those not living under a rock somewhere since 2015’s “Hamilton”- but this is actually his first effort as a film director.
  • tick, tick … BOOM! stars Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson and it is based on a true story. The film recounts sections of Larson’s life as he struggled to make it on Broadway. Larson’s life was tragically cut short just prior to the premier of his musical “Rent” in 1996.
  • Garfield dedicated a year of his life to hone his singing skills and it pays off here. He has a natural charisma and a full range of skills that make for a powerful emotional performance. His little 90-second song “Boho Days” makes for one of the absolute best musical scenes in recent years (and that’s in a year that includes West Side Story).
  • Like many Broadway adaptations, there are limitations here that ground it in theater- including the device of Larson addressing a theater audience (though films like Bob Fosse’s 1974 Lenny also do the same- in Fosse’s case he was able transcend it cinematically still).
  • Miranda gets superb performances from the cast. Judith Light is the standout (aside from Garfield) as his agent Rosa Stevens. Her delivery of “starting writing about what you know” is quite poignant as a devasted Larson realizes he just spent the last eight years of his life on  something that is not going to get made.
  • Miranda proves himself to be a shrewd editor (and there is no stage equivalent for that)- much of the film is made in the editing room.
  • There is a small formal mistake with Miranda going to the home video section at the 95-minute mark—the film changes voices (to play tribute to Larson) from being from him, to about him.
  • A love letter to the theater (it is already from one legend- Miranda, to another one- Larson)- there is a Sunday legend sequence in the diner with old Broadway icons including Joel Grey. Bradley Whitford plays a small, crucial role as Stephen Sondheim.
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 2021