Film Review - Tick, Tick... Boom! (12A)

 You're not Stephen Sondheim - you're gonna have to wait a little bit longer.

In the same month that Stephen Sondheim passed away, came Tick, Tick... Boom! a Netflix-streamed film celebrating the life and creative struggles of another transformative figure in American musical theatre (and one who Sondheim actively championed), Jonathan Larson. You're most likely to know him for Rent, the single most abiding work of Larson's tragically short life, and one that dazzled 1994 audiences with its style and subject-matter, the way Hamilton would two decades later. In Tick, Tick... Boom!, it's Hamilton's creator, Lin Manuel Miranda, who adapts an earlier, lesser-known Larson musical, one in which Sondheim gets more than name-checked in a serendipitous full-circle kind of way. Which is nice. All that trivia aside, is the film any good? Make that a hell yes - thanks first and foremost to Lin Manuel, and a certain ex Spider-Man.

Andrew Garfield plays Larson, performing in a 1992 theatre workshop of the semi-autographical  Tick, Tick... Boom! The film then begins flashing back to the events that inspired the show - namely Larson's desperate efforts to get a social satire/science fiction rock opera named Superbia off the ground. In 1990 the financially strapped Larson was living in struggling-artist squalor NYC-style - struggling to fund Superbia's showcase launch and to put potential investors' bums on the seats, all the while knowing that the second act's big song remained to be written. Oh, and his birthday loomed - the big 30!!!!! As Larson tells it, the time-bomb in his mind just wouldn't let up with its incessant ticking.

If any or all of that sounds precious, it totally could be, and it's to the credit of multiple players that it's start-to-finish compelling instead. The most obvious of said players is Garfield. We knew had dramatic depth and charm from The Social Network and Hacksaw Ridge and Breathe, along with his two swings at Spidey, but we didn't know he could sing - and damn can he do that. Not in a Ryan Gosling college-try kind of way, we're talking proper showbiz vocals here. He can also emote while singing, and blend it with the naturalistic parts of the performance, tying together the strands of this inspired, frustrating, loveable yet sometimes narcissistic personality in a way that makes you root for the guy, even if you sometimes want to slap him. Basically it's one of the stand-out performances of the year, regardless of movie genre, and one that demands to be seen. 

It's all the more impressive considering the talent with which Garfield is surrounded. Alexandra Shipp and Robin de Jesus prove they have good pipes as girlfriend Susan and long-term best Michael, while Vanessa Hudgens and Joshua Henry both power out their musical contributions in the Tick, Tick... Boom! stage musical framing scenes to arresting effect. But beyond that, the film is sufficiently trusting of its leads to populate the supporting cast with Broadway professionals. In comically grandiose diner song Sunday Garfield literally conducts a chorus of musical theatre legends, and holds his own with them. If that's your thing, you'll be counting the familiar faces, while marvelling at how the lead actor, however charismatic, isn't overwhelmed.

For all the starry, hyper-talented cast, it's Miranda who warrants the highest praise. Frankly it's a bit sickening that the much lauded Hamilton creator turns out to be this good a film director on top of all else the man can do. Taking Steven Levenson's excellent adapted screenplay, he glides with seeming effortlessness between past and present, on-stage and off, impressionist musical cinema and straight drama, and most effectively between the comically life-embracing and the tragic (Larson was writing his Superbia opus at a time when New York's theatre community was reeling from the AIDS epidemic at its height). The entire story as described above might have been impenetrable, but it's woven together with such style and grace, and moves along so breezily, that it carries you with ease. That's whether or not, I suspect very strongly, film musical is your go-to genre.

Tick, Tock... Boom!'s based-on-truth nature gives it a built-in poignancy, but even if you've never heard of Jonathan Larson, or care whether he can create something amazing before turning thirty, this is a fascinating and nuanced study of why certain people are willing to endure penury, rising damp and indifferent landlords just to pursue an artistic dream. You might get frustrated with Larson as he alienates friends and lover alike with his single-minded passion, but you never lose the sense of what drives him, and unlikely as it sounds, you really do feel that ticking clock. It helps of course that the tunes are good, and delivered by all concerned with such finesse. You might even be slightly more convinced by the end of how much creativity matters. And that'd be the most solid proof of just how well this film works.

Jonathan Larson, and Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson

Gut Reaction: Pretty much strapped in by the end of the first song for the emotional (and tuneful) roller-coaster that followed.

Memorable Moment: I Could Get Used To You - Jonathan faces his ultimate temptation to sell out, in one of the movie's funniest sequences.

Ed's Verdict: 9/10. Full of irony and optimism, grief and joy, Tick, Tick... Boom! is one of 2021's most welcome surprises. Even if you don't watch this kind of thing, try out the first ten minutes - and see if it doesn't carry you all the way to the end, leaving a happy-sad smile on your face. That's what it did to me.