Tick, Tick…Boom!
Year: 2021
Rating: PG-13
Length: 115 minutes / 1.92 hours
I have never seen Rent. I’m loosely aware of what it’s about, and I know it’s one of the most highly regarded musicals to have ever been created, but I’ve never seen it. In fact, I don’t think I could tell you the title of any song from Rent. Before I watched Tick, Tick…Boom! (2021), which seems to align with Rent‘s 25th anniversary, I was loosely aware that this movie was about the creation of this iconic musical. Except, that’s the thing: it’s not.
Perhaps I was expecting a musical-style Shakespeare in Love (1998) that puts Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) through the story beats to create Rent. Instead, there are only hints of Rent in this movie that focuses on Larson’s desire to create something important before he’s 30 (as a 36-year-old, may I say…”ouch”). Sure, there are musical bits in this movie, but another thing I was unaware of with Rent is how the songs are mostly just talking. The actors don’t sing the songs, rather just rhythmically reciting them to the audience. I get that technique was revolutionary in the mid-90s, but it’s still a bit jarring when I was expecting a more traditional musical.
For a movie taking place in the early to mid-90s, I had to cringe at the cultural aesthetic. Since I grew up in this timeframe, this movie made me realize how ghastly the fashion and interior decoration really was. Tick, Tick…Boom! really nails the realism of this decade’s look, but it makes me wonder if Gen-X or Baby Boomers have similar movies that make them recoil from the stark reality of the design choices for their time. At any rate, this movie wasn’t what I had expected, but I enjoyed Andrew Garfield’s standout performance, and perhaps for people who really like Rent, they’ll get a kick out of it too.
A Rent musical prequel that’s not entirely about Rent, I give Tick, Tick…Boom! 3.0 stars out of 5.
