Jonathan´s girlfriend is unhappy. She feels ignored, pushed to the side, irrelevant. And it´s true, all Jonathan can think about is workshop he was presenting in few days. Everyone important, people who could make or break his career would be there. They were coming to hear his music, his words, and evaluate his creativity.  She can’t compete with the grandeur of his musical projects, his love for his art. So,  she gets pushed aside. He admits how he’s been distracted, and he’ll start to pay attention to her, but only after he finishes his project. Her face says it all. They yell at each other, the screaming being reflected by the music’s constantly increasing, chaotic beat. She leaves. Jonathan is dumped.

Tick Tick…BOOM!, Netflix’s new original, starring Andrew Garfield, depicts the declining mental state of Jonathan Larson, as he tries to write his musical, support his friends and balance his life at the same time.

Part of what makes Tick Tick… BOOM! resonate so strongly with the audience is the personal battle Jonathan endures. The movie is set in New York in the 90s and is portrayed as busy and bustling, filled with struggling creatives, short on money, trying to break into show buisiness. Tick Tick.. BOOM!’s plot is mainly taken from the Broadway musical, written by the real life Jonathan Larson.  A lot of important and heavy emotional scenes are narrated through music. 

One might assume that some songs don’t fit into some of the scenes, as per the reputation that Disney musicals established; however, this assumption could not be further from the truth. Songs like Therapy are a prime example of this, not only by portraying a heavy scene, but also by being reinforced with the scenes in between the songs added by the director, Lin-Manuel Miranda. The songs heard in the movie serve as a perfect representation of what is going on with Jonathan’s mental state, giving us an insight on what he’s thinking about, what others are thinking about, or even what his stress levels look like. 

Soon, he’ll be turning 30, and he’s terrified of the implications that brings with it. He’s no longer a child, he has new responsibilities every day, he doesn’t feel ready to take on adult life. Swimming, 30/90, and Johnny Can’t Decide are examples of songs that describe Jonathan’s personal concerns. As the film progresses, Jonathan’s life become more and more stressful, whether it’s an intense argument with his girlfriend, his best friend, or problems he deals with alone, like his rent being overdue. When these moments occur, we hear a ticking sound faintly in the background. This is a marvelous detail added by the director that further helps the audience understand what life is like through Jonatha’s perspective. A ticking time bomb. Jonathan explains in the first song of the musical that he feels like he’s running out of time, comparing himself to his idols when they were his age. 

Jonathan Larson is a struggling musical writer. He works at a diner as a waiter, he’s been slaving over his musical for eight years, his friends around him are either dying or being alienated by society for their sexual orientations. His girlfriend is moving out soon, his roommate and best friend is leaving him, he’s running out of money, he’s losing his apartment, and most of all, he’s turning 30. He feels as though he’s running out of time, thinking that if he doesn’t achieve something before he turns 30, his life will have been wasted, and he has a week to do the aforementioned achievement.

Although the first act begins slowly, the tension builds in the second and third acts as the clock tick, tick, ticks along. It focuses on setting up his struggle, and the main way it does this is through song and act. However, after 30 minutes of songs back to back, the audience can feel bored or uninterested, and can lose focus on the film.

Some of the songs are splendid, but the overexposure to these in such a short amount of time makes it so the audience is tired by the time the second act comes around, and may already have an opinion for the movie, which can hinder the rest of their experience. First impressions are one of the most important things in media, and Tick Tick… BOOM!’s first impressions are of constant singing and dancing, which doesn’t really move the plot forward.

30/90, the introductory song, is a rock theme that presents to us the main character, and most of all, his concerns about growing older and running out of time. We understand the type of person he is with the lyrics presented to us. “They’re singing happy birthday, you just want to lay down and cry, not just another birthday, it’s 30/90. Why can’t you say 29, hell you still feel like you’re 22, turn 30, 1990- BANG! You’re dead, what can you do?”. Boho days, as the director, Lin-Manuel Miranda describes it, is about Jonathan trying to portray their life as something that isn’t particularly bad, and while they may not have many luxuries, it doesn’t mean it isn’t something to be proud of. “The time is flying and everything is dying, I thought by now I’d have a dog, a kid, and wife. The ship is sort of sinking, so let’s start drinking, before we start thinking, ‘Is this the life?”‘(Yeah). This is the life, bo-bo, bo-bo-bo”

Whiplash, another dramatic movie with strong musical themes, also shows the life of an aspiring artist trying to make it big in the world. Both of these films depict the lives of young men who have a strong desire to play music for an audience, and they are willing to give up much for it. 

Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, and Robin de Jesús all play the main cast, that being Jonathan Larson, Susan Wilson, and Michael, respectively. Over the course of the movie, the actors manage to fit into the shoes of the character more easily.  Alexandra Shipp and Robin de Jesús both make the characters feel like real people, they manage to put tremendous effort into having the characters feel real. Part of that achievement is the fact that these people are real, the conversations and decisions they made did actually happen in real life, however, a movie’s characters are only as good as their performances, it’s not enough to just say the actual lines, a good actor often turns into the character, jumping into their life and doing their best to understand the mindset, feelings, and personality; all of these things are achieved by Alexandra and Robin, a performance worthy of being applauded by the audience.

Andrew, in Whiplash, is challenged by his professor, and by extension, alienates everyone else in his life so he can exclusively concentrate on playing the drums. Jonathan, like Andrew, is also forced to put his relationships to the test, and while he’s able to save his relationship with his best friend, Michael, he’s not able to keep his girlfriend, Susan. In the end, like Andrew with his temporary girlfriend, Jonathan is forced to break up with Susan due to devoting his life to making music. 

Andrew Garfield’s performance is very different from Alexandra’s or Robin’s. Andrew Garfield doesn’t simply becomes Jonathan Larson, you almost feel as though he’s always been Jonathan. Garfield has often stated how he only acts in specific movies, he only takes roles he feels called to, roles that he can connect personally too, Tick, Tick…BOOM!  is no different. His portrayal of Jonathan is so good, it earned him a Golden Globe award for best actor. Comparing old footage of the real Jonathan Larson to Andrew Garfield’s performance, it is a challenge in itself to tell them apart. Andrew Garfield manages to become Larson so thoroughly, it’s hard to believe he’s not the real person.

Both of these movies are excellent examples of how being too obsessed with your goals can make you lose focus on other things that make up who you are. This is relatable to the audience, as they can use it to connect themselves to the world the movie sets up, and overall helping them acknowledge Jonathan’s struggle.

Tick Tick… BOOM! is an enjoyable movie. Although slow in its first act, it picks up afterwards, which allows the tension and the overall messages to reach to the audience. It’s an experience that a lot of people can relate to. If we were to rate it, Tick Tick…BOOM! would get an 8/10.