Reviews

tick, tick…boom!

March 1, 2022

tick, tick… BOOM! is a masterful debut feature film from Lin Manuel Miranda, confirming that he can tell a beautiful and touching story through the medium of musical theatre, a fact no one needed proving. The elements he brings to this project, with it being a film, feel refreshing to other movie musicals, the songs have a different energy to them which I think come from him having a stage background first.

The way in which scenes came together through their editing, and switching between scenes, brought the songs to life. Having the songs take place in the future where Larson is actually singing them and showing the events that he’s singing about was amazing.

Tick, Tick... Boom! review: Lin-Manuel Miranda salutes his hero Jonathan Larson - Polygon — tick, tick…BOOM!, Netflix

This film just cements the fact that Andrew Garfield is the best working actor right now. Garfield is magnificent as Jonathan Larson, his complete passion and admiration for Larson shines through in his performance. For him having never sang at all before this, his voice is so impressive, and was on par with a lot of the other massive Broadway stars in the film.

The supporting cast was good too, no one else really stood out in a bad way. However, Robin de Jesus was a fantastic supporting character, who’s not given many scenes, but when he’s on screen, he’s incredibly enticing, and has a powerfully emotional scene towards the end that was great. Also I was shocked how much I enjoyed Vanessa Hudgens, Therapy was such a fun song and performance between her and Garfield was cute.

Tick, Tick... BOOM! Star Robin De Jesús Knows What Makes A Good Movie Musical [Interview] — tick, tick…BOOM!, Netflix

This did feel like a feature debut, with a more basic story structure and a less polished finish but overall it was very entertaining. There was also way too much of a reliance on CGI, this film definitely didn’t need it and was distracting at moments

★★★1/2

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