Tick, Tick... Boom!

 

                                                         
This film is one of my favourite films of the year. The story is so important and absolutely beautiful. I watched this film so long ago and I am still thinking about it. I can’t explain the existential, mid-life crisis this film gave me at age 19. It made me want to do more, and push myself to really do as much as I can when I can and not wait for opportunities to come around. The film is about doing what you can with the time you have and making opportunities for yourself. It’s a film that made me reflect and look at life a little differently. There are not a lot of films out there these past couple of years that I have seen that really makes me stop and think, and this one did. This film tells the inspiring and unfortunately short life of Jonathan Larson.




I didn’t know who Jonathan Larson was before watching this film, and now I feel like I know him so so well. Andrew Garfield did such an amazing job portraying him. He worked closely with the family and people who knew him best and gave attention to every little detail when it came to playing him. It’s hard to play a real person who can’t tell you if that is how they want to be portrayed or not. I just think he did a really good job making sure that was how they wanted to represent Larson. Now Garfield is nominated for an Oscar for his performance and I am very excited for him as a fan of him and of the film. It gives me someone to root for and a reason to watch the Oscars (not like I wouldn’t be watching them anyway). Overall, the casting for this film was really well done, including Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp, Robin De Jesus, Bradley Whitford and Joshua Henry. As side characters I found them to have a little more depth and fun to watch. They added to the story but didn't retract from the main idea of the story. All very well-developed characters when they had real people to pull inspiration from.





I love the soundtrack for this film, and the fact that Andrew Garfield had no singing training before is really cool because it shows just how fast he learned, the effort he put into the role, and how far he came. The music from this film is still stuck in my head from nearly four months ago. It is very well done and correlates well to what is on screen. My favourite songs from the film are probably “boho days”, “30/90”, and “therapy”. Honestly, I highly recommend listening to the soundtrack even if you haven’t seen the film. I like how they used Jonathan Larson’s music from his musicals to tell the story of his own life.




The only thing I found that I didn’t like about this film was its pacing. Some spots were a bit slower, or more boring than others. The film is a bit of a slow burn, it really feels like they are dragging the story out. I love this film and if you love musicals you will like it too. But I think if you don’t like musicals it may be a bit harder to watch since it's pretty slow and filled with music.




Overall, I love this film, it is easily one of my favourites of the year. I like how they made the story more about who Jonathan Larson was and what he did before he was famous before he really got his foot in the door, and before he passed away. They made it a celebration of his life and not a story of how he died. The story is really beautiful and moving. I hope you give it a chance and watch it because it is one of those movies that sticks with you after you watch it.