I’m seeing three avenues to attack a discussion about this movie. There’s the John Larson of it all, Lin-Manuel Miranda as a director, or Andrew Garfield making good. I’m not a big musical theater person. I’ve never even listened to the entire RENT soundtrack. I know of its significance and recognize a few songs, but I could not go into tick, tick…Boom! (TTB from now on) from that perspective. I tend to conflate John Larson and Howard Ashman’s stories too.
What I can definitely say though is that TTB is a story for the Broadway obsessives. I saw one person tweet that it’s Ready Player One for Broadway, and it’s hard to argue with that. A lot of familiar faces show up for small and large parts. There’s a diner scene in particular that’s just plain nuts. Everything about how the songs are written and composed and the creative process are catnip to a certain audience. I wonder how this movie will end up faring with awards bodies, because it’s the kind of movie where the fans are probably louder than the general support. To me, it feels like a Lead Actor nomination, Original song, and maybe a technical award nomination or two. But it sounds like some are expecting a 10-nomination juggernaut. I’d be happy if that happened, but I worry.
It is definitely Andrew Garfield’s movie. It’s hard to see how he doesn’t get an Oscar nomination from it. He’s all over the movie, both narrating and performing it. He sings. He dances. He emotes. Whether the entry point was Boy A, The Social Network, or Hacksaw Ridge, many have been waiting for the role that fully maximized Garfield’s talents, and this appears to be it. Alexandra Shipp is definitely the next most prominent person as Larson’s put-upon girlfriend. She’s awesome in a very supporting role. From an awards perspective, I’m curious to see what happens with Vanessa Hudgens. She is excellent in this. She’s clearly a John Larson fangirl for how often she shows up in projects relating to him. Her role in this is weird. She’s part of the stage show that forms the spine of the story. She’s a limited character in the “real life” parts but integral to the stage parts, often standing in for Shipp’s character. I sometimes forget that she can really sing and she gets some great number in this. She’s maybe too much of a chorus player to really get any supporting actress attention, especially with Shipp there in an easier to define role. Some Hudgens attention would be warranted though.
Lin-Manuel Miranda directed this. It’s his feature directorial debut. He is in this even less than In the Heights but it’s easy to feel his presence throughout. The easiest connection is that John Larson’s race against turning 30 feels a lot like Hamilton’s running out of time. It’s funny how Miranda, a guy who debuted on Broadway when he was 28 with a play he wrote, is so obsessed with not accomplishing anything or enough. TTB is based on an off-Broadway show Larson started performing in 1990, so it’s fair to assume it inspired the idea in Hamilton rather than Hamilton attracting Miranda to this movie idea.
I really liked TTB, even as I was aware that I wasn’t the audience getting the most out of it. Garfield is really spectacular in it. Miranda acquits himself well as a director. He doesn’t bite off too much or inject himself into it in a distracting way. I’ll be curious to see what/if he directs next. I’d like to see what he does with something he doesn’t have such a personal connection to, although I do think that helped this a lot.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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