tick, tick... BOOM!

 Year:  2021

Director:  Lin-Manuel Miranda

Screenplay:  Steven Levenson, based on the stage musical tick, tick... BOOM! by Jonathan Larson

Starring:  Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, Robin de Jesús, Joshua Henry, Judith Light

Running Time:  121 minutes

Genre:  Musical, drama

New York City, January 1990:  Jonathan Larson (Garfield) works in a popular Manhattan diner but his true passion is musical theatre.  For the past eight years he has been working on his passion project, a dystopian science-fiction musical called Superbia.  In a few days time he has the opportunity to put on a workshop product of Superbia, which he hopes will attract the attention of producers and investors as well as proving his talent to friends and family.  Jonathan also feels intense pressure to become successful before he turns 30, which is just over a week away, and so he feels that this production is his last chance to "make it".  He also has to deal with personal tragedies, severe financial troubles, and the fact that he still has to write one of the key songs for his musical, and he has no ideas at all. Meanwhile the clock keeps ticking away.

This is a biographical film telling the early career of playwright and composer Jonathan Larson, who is best known for writing the hit musical Rent, which ran for 12 years on Broadway.  The film is based on a semi-autobiographical "rock monologue" Larson wrote in 1990.  The title refers to an incessant ticking sound that Larson says he hears in his head, referring to his feeling that time is running out.  The film cuts between Andrew Garfield, as Larson, performing the monologue in front of an audience, with a full band, and the musical drama which makes up the bulk of the film.  It's a hugely enjoyable film about the sacrifices, pressures, hopes and joys of making art.  Andrew Garfield gives a great performance in the central role, and also shows that he is a very good singer.  Alexandra Shipp is good as Susan, Larson's long-suffering girlfriend, and Robin de Jesús gives a fantastic performance as Michael, Larson's best friend who gave up his own acting dreams for a career in advertising.  The film acknowledges the AIDS crisis, which claims several of Larson's friends, and that casts a strong shadow over Larson's various problems.  The film marks the directorial debut of actor, writer, singer, songwriter, producer Lin-Manual Miranda, and it is a very accomplished debut, with a huge sense of style and visually spectacular.  The songs are very good.  This is one of the best films that I have seen about writing and the creative process.

Andrew Garfield in tick, tick... BOOM!