“tick, tick…BOOM!” (2021)
Astounding central performance and lots of ticking but definitely no boom.
Astounding central performance and lots of ticking but definitely no boom.
Now let’s start as we mean to go on by my admitting I’m not the core demographic for this biographical musical and I’m going to fly in the face of popular opinion as well as Academy Award wisdom by saying it’s not very good. Quixotically, a third of the film is very good but it gets heavily weighed down by the majority of the shenanigans that surround it’s central beauty. Before we get to that, my scant bona fides for airing my views on musicals or musical films is that being a die hard Radiohead fan means I’m a tough nut to please! Therefore it may come as a surprise to you to learn that I adore La La Land (2016, directed by Damien Chazelle), like but not love Rocketman (2019, directed by Dexter Fletcher) and return to adoration levels for the Bryan Singer directed Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018. Not every film there is comparable to the film under discussion but another one is, again helmed by Dexter Fletcher, and the utterly beautiful Sunshine on Leith. Being a fan of the musical brothers otherwise known as The Proclaimers means loving Sunshine on Leith is almost written into the contract, see Radiohead above, and I guess what I’m trying to elucidate in a very round about way is if this style, era or genre of music (and indeed storytelling) appeals to you, then I can see the vast worldwide appeal.
To confuse matters further, I’m a lifelong fan of stand up comedy and that’s how I viewed the third of the film I did enjoy and like very much. The man and his piano, sure. But it was also the man and his story, his incredible and ultimately heart breaking story, of toil and struggle, rejection and dreams and eight long years in the making here he is, shooting this all through the prism of comedic insights as well as some beautifully performed songs.
This aspect of the film is roughly a quarter and perhaps a third of the entire running length, a workshop of songs, funny anecdotes, self deprecating humour and all intertwined around the real life of a hugely ambitious would be musical theatre director working part-time in a New York diner as he completes his magnum opus “Superbia”. Here’s where the film fails for me as I simply didn’t buy into the life surrounding him off stage.
What follows is a brief background to an incredible life, and the Oscar nominated performance of Andrew Garfield who brought it vividly to life on screen:
Jonathan Larson - Wikipedia
Jonathan David Larson (February 4, 1960 - January 25, 1996) was an American composer, lyricist and playwright most…en.wikipedia.org
Thank You, Jonathan Larson - Signature Theatre
Jonathan Larson was born on February 4, 1960 to Nanette and Allan Larson and grew up in White Plains, a suburb of New…www.sigtheatre.org
The True Story of 'Tick, Tick...Boom!' Creator Jonathan Larson's Life
This content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able…www.esquire.com
“Jonathan Larson” (Andrew Garfield) Here is Garfield at his Oscar nominated best, injecting self deprecating and heartfelt humour into the tale of his life as he workshops the passion project that would morph into tick, tick…BOOM! Together with an extraordinary backing band, they collaborate on some rousing songs that often eclipse those performed within the depiction of Larson’s life away from the stage. As you will read above or see through the eyes of Garfield’s brilliant performance, Larson led an incredible life that was cruelly cut so short but which has left a legacy that endures to this day and perhaps forevermore. I’m in no way criticising the very real human being who lived this life and in fact I want to see more, much more, of his stage show recordings. Nor am I criticising the performance of Andrew Garfield who I’ve had a soft spot for since he provided the humanity in 2010’s David Fincher directed The Social Network before astounding me with his performance in Martin Scorsese’s Silence in 2016.
It’s just the life painted away from the live workshop scenes left me cold.
“This is Jonathan Larson’s story…except for the parts that Jonathan made up” and it’s a story of stress and anxiety as Larson approaches his 30th birthday, a personal foreboding milestone, and he’s yet to be a Broadway musical success. Larson works part-time in a New York diner and is seemingly surrounded at every turn by either friends and colleagues within the diner or especially so at the apartment he shares either with a fast rotating set of flatmates but particularly “Michael” (Robin de Jesus). As is brilliantly depicted in the film’s closing credits, Jonathan and Michael were huge, lifelong friends since childhood and Larson’s angst at his distance and estrangement (on occasion) from Michael is the prism through which to see everyone within Larson’s friendship group, except perhaps for his girlfriend “Susan” (Alexandra Shipp). As his own self imposed 30th birthday deadline looms, we get an elongated snapshot of Larson as a committed artist desperate to achieve a lifetime ambition through a somewhat man child and a childish persona wrapped up entirely within himself and, combined with his own drive and ambition, this creates a wedge between himself and the large circle of close friends who clearly adore him.
In addition to the workshop scenes I also enjoyed Garfield’s representation of Larson describing his passion project as a “future satire set on a poisoned earth of an elite in control via screens” (sound familiar anyone?) where human emotions are outlawed and, when successful, his life’s work to date will be the “first musical for the MTV generation”. I also have a strange liking for breaks in the fourth wall (numerous here) and empathise beyond words with the sentiment and existential angst of a tick, tick ticking of every day life. Naturally I also heartily enjoyed the late 1980’s into 1990 soundtrack with a brilliant use of the B52’s “Love Shack” and I believe I heard the faint stirrings of “I Wanna Be Adored” by the wonderful Stone Roses, in addition to the multitude of original songs from Larson.
What I didn’t enjoy, or perhaps more accurately, believe in, was the societal and particularly the political picture painted of the time, Larson’s inner torment and struggle between staying true to his art or conceding to the corporate life of his friend Michael (or a corporate life at all — He was clearly driven and focussed on his artform) and nor did I believe in the tangled love story of Larson and Susan or Larson’s struggle whether to stay in New York or move to the leafy suburbs!
There is a love story to believe in here and it’s shown in the film’s closing credits.
Directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda in his debut outing on the cinema screen in the director’s chair following the hugely successful and critically acclaimed Hamilton two years ago, tick, tick…BOOM! garnered two Oscar nominations this year (Garfield’s central performance and the editing skills of Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum) and without reading any reviews I’m guessing this was seen as a hugely popular hit and, like Hamilton, lavished with great praise.
I just didn’t care for this save the excellent third of the film and its peek into the stage shows and workshops of Jonathan Larson that I’ve made my mission to seek out as much as is available online.
It seems to be when the man and his art were truly at one, and so well captured here by Andrew Garfield.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 100 blog articles (with 300+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“A Small Fortune” (2021)
A film of two unconvincing and unexciting halvesmedium.com
“Resurrection” (2022)
Disappointing and disturbing psychological horror.medium.com
“Nobody” (2021)
“They say God doesn’t close a door before opening another”.medium.com