AFI Fest 2021: Tick Tick Boom Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s AFI Fest, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Tick Tick Boom is a musical drama and the feature directorial debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda, based on the semi-autobiographical musical of the same name by Jonathan Larson. Set in 1990, the film follows an aspiring musical composer named Jon (Garfield) who endures a quarter-life crisis as he approaches the age of 30 where he did not feel close to achieving his dream.

Tick Tick Boom focuses on Jon trying to make something out of his unsuccessful career thus far and his relationship with his girlfriend Susan (Shipp) and his roommate and childhood friend Michael (de Jesus). Jon is torn between following his dream of composing and opting for security and family in a different career. However, Susan wants to raise a family and does not view that as compatible with Jon’s “starving artist” lifestyle. 

The best part about Tick Tick Boom is definitely the performances, especially Garfield as Jon. Meanwhile, despite being Miranda’s directorial debut, he does a great job behind the camera by perhaps using some of his past experience creating and starring in such Broadway musicals as In the Heights and Hamilton.

Musical fans are going to find this quite irresistible. It is mostly charming while boasting several emotional moments as well. While a large portion of audiences will flock to Tick Tick Boom boom for Garfield alone, the film is much more than just that. It is a well directed, well written, beautifully-immersive film with great performances. It is more about certain moments than it was about mere plot therefore certain scenes go on longer than they should have. Though sometimes those lengths work, other times they don’t. The filmmakers use a staged performance of the staged musical, with Jon leading a small electric band in a selection of songs, to frame the central narrative consisting of dramatic scenes.

At the end of the day, Tick Tick Boom is a stellar film that pulls audiences into its story thanks to likable lead characters. Though its pacing slows down at times, it is definitely still worth the watch overall.

*still courtesy of Netflix*

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Anmol Pandhi

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