[Netflix] The Clock Inside the Artist: “tick, tick… BOOM!”
December 28, 2021
Sofía Alvarez Salas
December 28, 2021
Sofía Alvarez Salas
“tick, tick… BOOM!” is the story of the melancholy of artist Jonathan Larson, struggling to break through in the early 1990s, just before his thirtieth birthday. Why do so many people face a personal crisis when they turn thirty?
The clock inside Jonathan ticks relentlessly, telling him over and over to hurry, that there’s no time, that this career won’t wait for him. It doesn’t help that, at the dawn of the 1990s, several of his friends are falling victim to a mysterious, little-understood disease called HIV/AIDS.
In his directorial debut, Lin-Manuel Miranda presents a story that could very well be his own—or that of most artists striving to make it. A battle against oneself, disguised as a battle against time.
Larson, who would go on to create the hit musical Rent a few years later, lives in a constant state of creation. He works at a diner to make ends meet but lives, breathes, and eats theatre. At the same time, he’s preparing for the workshop performance of his musical Superbia, which he believes will be his big break.
Amid his desperation to succeed, he moves through a minefield of devastating news: friends dying from AIDS, and decisions that shape both his personal and professional life.
Andrew Garfield, returning after a brief absence from the screen, portrays this delicate balance with great finesse. The frantic pace of Larson’s life is juxtaposed with the dreamlike quality of his musical visions, where everyday situations become staged numbers in his mind. Naturally, “tick, tick… BOOM!” had to be a musical—it’s the only way to truly see the world through Larson’s eyes. A perspective full of empathy, but unforgiving when it comes to himself.
One line in the script captures it perfectly:
“There comes a point in your life when you stop being a writer who waits tables and become a waiter with a hobby.”
“There comes a point in your life when you stop being a writer who waits tables and become a waiter with a hobby.”
Larson can’t see the value in all his efforts because he’s so focused on the results—and on how little time he believes he has to reach the stars. This constant melancholy takes a toll on his closest relationships, particularly with his girlfriend and best friend. And so we arrive at another major turning point, walking alongside him the whole way.
Is he being selfish by chasing his dream? Is it possible to pursue your goals without missing out on life itself? We wish we had the answer.
“tick, tick… BOOM!” presents a world of absolute melancholy—a minefield en route to a dream. A portrait of an artist in crisis, digging deep for strength to reach a destination. He is the ticking time bomb inside his own head. A sensitive, anxious character, on the edge of grasping his future—only for it to smack him in the face with the brutal force of reality. Though people recognize his talent, it doesn’t feel like enough.
What makes “tick, tick… BOOM!” stand apart from other stories about “the road to success” is its brutal realism. His friends die, and they’re terrified while it happens. The AIDS pandemic claims nearly everyone close to him. They too carry ticking bombs inside them, and their explosions beat in sync with the ticking inside Larson. That clock never stopped ticking—and as we now know, it ran out before he achieved his dreams.
The film reinforces Larson’s inner turmoil through editing that mirrors his emotional whirlwind: at times frenetic, other times introspective as we enter his inner world. Jonathan lives in both extremes—one he needs to survive, the other to truly exist. But what can he do? He’s incomplete without either and can’t slow down. He must keep “throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks,” surviving off feedback alone—with no real success yet.
There’s something painfully ironic about brilliant artists who never get to experience their own success while alive. Jonathan Larson joined that list at just 32 years old. His bomb went off—but it left a mark on the world in the form of Rent, one of the most iconic musicals in history.
“tick, tick… BOOM!” finds in Lin-Manuel Miranda a director who understands the theatre world and tells Larson’s story with love, while respecting the desperation of an artist who always knew what lived inside him. A story equal parts inspiring and heart-wrenching.
