“tick, tick… BOOM!” Makes Bad Art Even Worse

The story behind hit Broadway show “RENT” is even more tone deaf than the musical itself

What are the worst five words to see when you sit down to watch a movie? The answer to that question may easily be: “Directed by Lin Manuel Miranda.” tick, tick… BOOM! is abominable. Insufferable. Horrific. Adapted from the autobiographical stage musical, it tells the true story of serial white savior Johnathan Larson in the days leading up to his 30th birthday as he mulls over what he has, or more importantly, hasn’t achieved in his decades of existence, culminating with the first days of work on his hit musical, Rent. With a host of embarrassing performances from the entire cast, Miranda’s directorial debut adds a horrific stain to his otherwise relatively agreeable career. 

The cinematography and production design of this film are outstandingly ugly, and provide an extra visual reminder of the unpleasant scenes that unfold before us. The music and lyrics (written by Johnathan Larson himself) treat the viewers as idiots, spelling out every situation with such hubris and an agonizing lack of subtlety that the writing makes Aaron Sorkin’s look nuanced and thoughtful in comparison. The film is a celebration of Larson’s worst qualities and amplifies the irritating aspects of Rent to astronomical levels.

Larson, as portrayed in the film, perfectly mirrors Rent’s protagonist Mark, a middle-class artist who chooses to turn down lucrative job offers and the care of his loving family for the sake of “authenticity”; if he dares to live the life of comfort that is right at his fingertips he would be selling out and his artistic voice would become pointless. He chooses to embrace bohemian ideals, exploiting the actual suffering of his friends in order to make his pretentious art, using the AIDS crisis as a backdrop to paint himself as a hero to the less fortunate.

 The similarity between Mark Cohen and Johnathan Larson in tick, tick… BOOM! is best illustrated in a conversation between Johnathan and his token HIV-positive friend, Michael. Johnathan whines to Michael about the most destructive epidemic in New York City: the one of blandness that is sweeping Broadway stages. Johnathan guilt-trips Michael about his life of luxury, and Michael grounds Johnathan by saying: “Spare me with the self-righteousness, John! You’re writing musicals in your living room, you’re not saving the rainforest… I’m sorry for getting a nice car! I’m sorry for moving into an apartment with centralized heating! I’m sorry for enjoying my life while I still have time!” But Johnathan retorts with arrogance and continues to complain about the state of the industry, saying: “Broadway just churns out mega musicals without a hint of something original, or god forbid, something to actually say about the world!” The viewer is supposed to side with Johnathan on this point, while Michael is supposed to be the out-of-touch privileged voice. The irony and unintentional metatextuality of this scene seems to be lost on everyone that said yes to this project. 

Johnathan Larson’s class commentary is so ill-informed that it transforms the advertisers, the investors, and the landlords into the most reasonable characters in the narratives. In his stories about artists’ tortured lives of poverty, why does he give the rich the moral high ground? Because Larson and Miranda were both caught up in their own nobleness and self-righteousness that they lost all awareness of the world and their place in it. So they, and many others, churn out their grotesque liberal nothingness with a trademark facade of progressiveness designed to please its viewers and make them think that they are subverting the system when they are actually celebrating it.

Every second of this godforsaken disaster is despicable. This movie is a huge step backward: for musicals, for cinema, for meaningful experiences, and for art as a whole.

tick, tick… BOOM! was released on November 19, 2021 and is currently streaming on Netflix.