Posted: 11/19/21 at 5:21pm
I watched it earlier today. For his feature directorial debut, Lin-Manuel Miranda does a terrific job. He along with screenwriter Steven Levenson have very wisely chosen to have the story set around this framing device where Jonathan Larson is performing his rock monologue in front of an audience at New York Theatre Workshop with his friends Roger (Joshua Henry) and Karessa (Vanessa Hudgens). Which is a pretty clever nod to the origins of this musical. Editors Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum brilliantly cut back and forth between the performance and the actual events Jonathan Larson tells in his story. The musical numbers Miranda visualizes with cinematographer Alice Brooks are stunning.
Not only does Andrew Garfield hold his own alongside the more experienced musical theatre performers in the cast, but his acting on display here is quite extraordinary. He gets to play with a variety of different emotions that range from energetic to anxious to relatable. He also shares some very moving moments with Alexandra Shipp and Robin De Jesús at different points in the film. Not to mention that Bradley Whitford’s performance as Stephen Sondheim is perfect. He doesn’t impersonate the legendary musical theatre songwriter, but he does capture the essence of him in terms of both how he looks and how he talks.
If you are a musical theatre fan like me, you’re definitely gonna get a whole lot out of this movie not just because of the subject, but also because a bunch of Broadway performers make small appearances throughout (especially in the ‘Sunday’ sequence). Though if you’re not as much into musical theatre, you should still find Tick, Tick…BOOM! to be a fascinating look at what it’s like to be a struggling artist.
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