tick, tick . . BOOM! - Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 5 of 10

If you've ever found yourself humming along to any songs from the hit Broadway show Hamilton, this summer’s In The Heights or the it's stuck in my mind for eternity and there's nothing I can do about it You're Welcome or Shiny from Disney's Moana, you've experienced the power of Lin-Manuel Miranda. He's been writing iconic songs for several years and now with his success he's begun taking on bigger and more pronounced projects, besides writing songs for big budget films. His latest effort and first mainstream directorial project is called tick, tick . . BOOM! and it just dropped on Netflix last weekend. While the film is based on a play that was conceived by Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent back in the early 1990's, it never found much success as a play on Broadway. As a movie, it works in giving us the fascinating insight into a struggling musical theatre writer trying to make a hit play but the film lacks clear direction and the story gets muddled with side notes that distract from the main narrative rather than strengthening the film and helping it build any momentum. Most of the songs are very good and some of the sequences are clever but it’s clear this is Miranda’s first directorial effort, the film may have the Tick, Tick down but fails to go BOOM at the end.

SYNOPSIS - Our musical voyage sets out on a bit of a confusing note, we see Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) come out and begin performing tick, tick . . BOOM! in from of an audience. What we don’t know is that the premise of tick, tick is actually him creating his first play called Superbia, through the film it narratively switches back and forth between him performing tick, tick and the life experiences he has while creating Superbia. We're then introduced by Jonathan to his gay best friend Michael (Robin de Jesus) but it’s only later that we learn that they moved to New York together to sing and act. Next up in the introductions is Susan (Alexandra Shipp), an interpretive dance artist who also happens to be Jonathan’s love interest of choice. But then we shift to a party taking place after one of Susan’s performances where another one of Jonathan’s friends and coworkers mentions his T-cell count and the threat of HIV and AIDS present in the 1980’s comes back into focus for anyone who lived through that time. But within a few moments Jonathan and the other characters at the party break into an impromptu song, a fun little beat that really hits at this movies strength. But since we’re never given a chance to find our footing, we’re left wondering, “What is the point of what I’m seeing? What are the motivations?”, and it becomes rather difficult to start investing in anything going on and what these otherwise fascinating characters are doing.

By the time the final musical number closes and the curtains fall, we’ve gotten to see what life must be like to live inside Lin-Manuel Miranda’s brain, to experience things in life and have music, lyrics and songs come to you out of the blue, it must be amazing. Even though the film follows Larson, the singing and music take center stage, even though Garfield himself is not a great singer, he’s doing the best with what he’s got to work with. The songs are fun, the lyrics are smart and it’s enjoyable to listen to them, but they just aren’t of the same quality as other great musical films, which is probably why this play never got picked up for production in the first place. As was mentioned earlier, the direction is a problem and the big emotional impact and finale it’s going for falls flat and just doesn’t carry the weight they’re pushing for. Any message the film is trying to convey ends up getting lost in the shuffle and it boils down in the end to a not much more than a guy crying while playing his piano.

SUMMARY - In all it’s a good film with lots of great music and Garfield is very good in the role as Larson, but the film fails to deliver in many ways as a great or even really good musical. It’s entertaining enough as the music holds the viewers interest and it has a few funny moments sprinkled in but unfortunately the songs and really the film itself are forgettable. Big fans of musicals, Miranda or Larson will probably have a good time but general audiences may be searching for that remote and tick, tick . . BOOM! find something different to watch.