tick, tick…BOOM! (2021)

Loads of fun for us lovers of musicals, this creatively staged movie starts in 1992, when the late composer/playwright Jonathan Larson performed his show of the same name, telling the story of his previous musical Superbia, and moves to 1990 as he was about to turn 30. Andrew Garfield makes a wonderful singing debut and shines as the ebullient Jonathan (Garfield was nominated for both an Oscar and SAG award, among others, for this role). The enormous cast includes Alexandra Shipp as Susan, Robin de Jesus as Michael, Vanessa Hudgens as Karessa, and Bradley Whitford as Stephen Sondheim (who died just before this premiered but lent his own voice––and wrote the lines––off screen to one scene).

Lin-Manuel Miranda makes his feature directorial debut and has a cameo as a cook at the diner. Steven Levenson adapted Larson's play and all the music is Larson's. Larson is best known for the musical Rent, but died unexpectedly the night before that premiered off-Broadway in 1996.

One scene at the diner is jam-packed with stars, including Renée Elise Goldsberry and Phillipa Soo (original Angelica and Eliza in Hamilton), Joel Grey, Chita Rivera, André de Shields, Bebe Neuwirth, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Phylicia Rashad, Bernadette Peters, and Rent original cast members Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia.

The other Oscar nomination went to editors Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum, and they deserve it for cutting together the flashbacks, flash-forwards, and musical numbers.

There are many juicy trivia items and I recommend that link.

Garfield was last blogged for The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Hudgens for Spring Breakers. I wrote about Whitford in Destroyer and barely mentioned him in How It Ends. Shipp's resume includes Straight Outta Compton, Deadpool 2, and Shaft, and Levenson's includes eight episodes of Masters of Sex, eight of Fosse/Verdon, as well as the book of Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway and the screenplay of the 2021 film adaptation (haven't seen it yet but it's high on my list). De Jesus is new to me. Kerstein worked on Garden State (2004), Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Going in Style, Crazy Rich Asians, and In the Heights, and Weisblum on The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox, Black Swan, Isle of Dogs, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and more.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics were not watching the clock, with their average of 87% and its audiences are explosively happy at 96. We watched it on Netflix on March 16.