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Tick, Tick… Boom Movie Review

Tick, Tick… Boom is a 2021 musical biographical film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and starring Andrew Garfield in the main role. It is a surprisingly strong directorial debut.

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“What is the point of money if you

don’t spend it on the people you love?“

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It’s the story of an aspiring composer in New York City who is worried he made the wrong career choice, whilst navigating the pressures of love and friendship. Miranda has delved into movies recently, but this is his first full-fledged directorial effort, and I have to say that I was pretty impressed with what he did to this material.

There are some issues to be had with the movie in the writing department, but the directing is very confident and never too stagey, which is a legitimate problem for most creators transitioning from theater to cinema. The editing was particularly sophisticated and the whole structure of the movie with the quick cuts and going back and forth between performance, narration and actual story was deftly executed. The film is pleasantly sweet and lively.

I also appreciated the whole emphasis on the creative process and the many hardships that writers have to endure not just during writing, but also afterward as most of the projects you have to give up and just continue writing until something sticks. The writer’s block was also stupendously realized in a rather intense manner.

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All of these aspects were great; thus, it was frustrating to witness a movie about writing have such a problematic screenplay itself. Robin de Jesus’ character was so wonderful, and that friendship was powerful and complex that I wanted more of it. The same goes for his romantic relationship. The movie itself frequently forgets these people just as the protagonist does.

But the biggest problem is that the movie is so preoccupied with Larson’s first failed project that the one that did succeed, Rent, was not properly emphasized. For a movie that is set in the AIDS pandemic era and that focuses heavily on that subject to not then honor it through this production was rather odd.

But for the most part Tick, Tick… Boom! really works. It even manages to trump some biographical conventions, though not all of them. The technical aspects are solid enough and the musical numbers are pretty good for the most part. Boho Days is fun, Johnny Can’t Decide is very well incorporated into the plot and Louder Than Words is the most meaningful song in terms of the lyrics. These songs all song similar to each other, but their execution was lively and charming enough that most really worked.

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Andrew Garfield is the driving force here. Wow, was this perfect casting or what? Finally, he had a chance to make use of his evident singing talents and he was wonderful in that area, but his performance is also emotionally driven and simply committed through and through. He delivered one of the best acting performances of this year. The main character also depicted having flaws and having fraught relationships with his friends and girlfriend was also refreshing to witness.

For a movie that is all about the writing process, Tick, Tick… Boom! has a rather problematic script. It focuses way too heavily on the central character while the choice to not depict the production of Rent during the second half was very odd. Still, the movie has some fun songs, a pleasantly lively execution of these numbers and a very well-developed protagonist. The standouts are Andrew Garfield and Lin-Manuel Miranda. The former gave a terrific, emotionally driven, committed performance and was perfectly cast while the latter delivered a surprisingly strong directorial debut fueled by some excellent editing and structural choices.

My Rating – 4