Culture Crash: A Review of “Tick, Tick… Boom!”

This year was supposed to be something of a revival for the movie musical. An array of big-ticket movies were supposed to catch fire after months of pandemic-era malaise. Instead, most of the musicals have come and gone with little impact – or worse – they were outright mocked.

Dear Evan Hansen was widely ridiculed online, while the Amazon Prime original Annette was generally well-received, though I personally couldn’t stand that movie. I liked In the Heights, but its reception was mild. Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story looks promising, but I can’t say for sure what the response to that one will be.

Here’s what I do know: Tick, Tick.. Boom!, a Netflix film released in November is my favorite musical movie of the year. The movie is an adaptation of a one-man show from Jonathan Larson, the iconic creator of the musical RENT. Larson tragically passed the night before RENT’s first performance, so Tick, Tick… Boom! is actually from the days before RENT, but the show is smartly built up by screenwriter Steven Levenson and first-time director Lin-Manuel Miranda to also become something of a biopic for Larson himself.

What I really enjoyed is that Tick, Tick.. Boom! serves as a tribute to the dreamers and the creatives of the world without getting too over-sentimental. Andrew Garfield stars in the movie and he is truly phenomenal – cheery and relatable, he hits all the right notes. The songs are good, Joshua Henry and Vanessa Hudgens provide just enough Broadway razzmatazz, and the movie really flies by.

Tick, Tick.. Boom! really is the perfect holiday-season pick-me-up, and it’s now streaming on Netflix.