Tick Tick Boom

Movie: Tick Tick Boom

Nominated for: Best Actor, Best Film Editing

How I watched: Netflix

When I fell asleep: Morning Viewing!

When it had me: Michael's new apartment

When it lost me: Not really

What I have to say:

 -- a review mostly written from the depths of Omicron --

I have a degree in theatre and I am "supposed" to like musical theatre, but it's not my favorite, generally. This movie was recommended to me and I drug my feet a bit. Then I watched it and it destroyed me. Some really ugly crying happened. To be fair, I've been crying a lot anyway, what with half of everyone I know having Covid and constant anxiety surrounding sending my kids to school everyday in this health crisis. But still, Andrew Garfield is a delightfully wonderful singer and acts the hell out of this story. I've had a lot of mixed feelings about him as a performer and I didn't have any idea he was capable of a performance like this one. Between this film and Spider-Man: No Way Home, my respect fro him has sky-rocketed this year.

Tick Tick Boom reminds me that the purpose to making art is simply to make art. It is a thing to do because we love it, because we need it, because it informs our lives. We should not make art because we want to make it big; that outcome is never assured. Do many of us hope to be able to make a living doing the thing we love? Yes, we do, but I have so much respect for artists that just figured out how to do it without it being easy. We'd be robbed of so much good art if we only had art, movies, books and music that were easy to get produced and released into the world.

There are lots of fun cameos in the movie and then it reminds me of the AIDS crisis and I get super sad and cry a lot more. It wasn't an easy watch for me but it was super good.