Netflix And Chill: Tick, Tick . . . Boom! (2021)

I have made the same mistake too many times already, but I am sure that I will continue to make it every year for the rest of my life. Some movies just don't seem to grab me, despite the fact that I like any of the main players involved, and despite some praise being thrown around. Tick, Tick . . . Boom! was another one of those films. I'm a big fan of Andrew Garfield, but I wasn't all that excited by the idea of a musical biopic about the famous Jonathan Larson (a musical theatre figure best known for the phenomenan that is Rent). More fool me.

It's the early 1990s. Larson (Garfield) takes to the stage to perform "Tick, Tick . . . Boom!". It's based on his struggles to keep himself motivated, keep himself from alienating his loved ones (mainly his girlfriend, Susan, played here by Alexandra Shipp, and a very good friend, Michael, played by Robin de Jesús), and try to make some kind of impact on the musical theatre world as he senses the titular tick tick reminding him of time marching ever onward. There's also the constant shadow of the AIDS crisis adding a sense of fear and urgency to things.

Based on the work of Larson, which was the kind of semi-autobiographical tale you suspect added plenty of creative liberties around a constant core of naked truth and raw pain running through it, this is turned into a satisfying and entertaining movie experience by writer Steven Levenson and director Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda has some experience with musicals, of course (I'm jokingly understating his own success), and he seems to be a perfect choice to helm this, constantly moving around Larson to show him from various angles, and various distances, as he tries to balance out his selfishness, his creative drive, and the love that he has for others he wants to keep in his life.

Garfield is fantastic in the lead role. He's great with both the seriously dramatic moments and also the moments of humour, but he's also really good with the scenes that require him to sing and dance. And I would argue that nobody does a better damp-eyed sad face than that man, who could star in yet another remake of The Heartbreak Kid that would just be footage of him walking up to people in the street and wobbling his tear ducts ever so slightly until they are in floods of tears. Shipp and Jesús are also very good, and they show our main character the different life options available without becoming ridiculously paper-thin stereotypes. Vanessa Hudgens is a good fit for the role of Karessa, a stage performer who helps to deliver Larson's full creative vision, and there's fun to be had from seeing Bradley Whitford portray the famous Stephen Sondheim, particularly in a scene that has him disagreeing with the opinion of Walter Bloom (head of a musical theatre workshop, played by the one and only Richard Kind). Others worth mentioning are Jonathan Marc Sherman (as Ira Weitzman), Joshua Henry (as Roger), Ben Levi Ross (as Freddy), and Judith Light playing an agent who doesn't seem a million miles away from the comic creation we used to see struggling to get work for Joey Tribbiani in Friends.

Considering my ignorance of Larson's work, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Tick, Tick . . . Boom! was able to quickly win me over with the wit and energy of the lyrics and staging of the musical numbers. It's not up there with the very best, but it succeeded in getting me to occasionally tap my feet and enjoy songs I was hearing for the very first time. That's no mean feat, and I'm sure that those who already know Larson's work will find more treats and get even more from this. 

Now, excuse me, I'm off to listen to "Therapy" (which was my favourite song from this) and convince myself that I really should eventually watch Rent at some point. 

8/10

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We Live In Time (2024)

I knew that I wanted to see We Live In Time because I tend to want to see everything that stars either Florence Pugh or Andrew Garfield, and they both play main characters here. Aside from that, all I knew about the film is that it showed a relationship in non-chronological order. That's been done before, a number of times, and I was worried that We Live In Time might end up feeling too familiar to me, but I'm happy to say that it manages to avoid making you think of anything else while it all plays out. Viewers are, hopefully, far too invested in the onscreen couple, and what they're going through, to spend too much time thinking about any similarities with other movies.

Andrew Garfield is Tobias and Florence Pugh is Almut. The two meet just as Tobias is going through a divorce. Almut is a successful chef, and she's about to open her first restaurant. Making a strong connection immediately, they then have to navigate their way through conversations about whether or not to have children, career paths, and serious health issues that come along to spoil the party. It's all quite standard stuff, shaken up slightly by the non-chronological presentation, and elevated by both Garfield and Pugh being two people you can easily believe in their roles.

While I'm not familiar with the work of writer Nick Payne, who only seems to have written a couple of features and a decent selection of TV work before this, I am now happy to check out whatever he does next. We Live In Time may not deliver any surprises or stunning insights, but it's nicely crafted in a way that allows most of the scenes to feel as if they're built around a kernel of truth. 

Director John Crowley has been doing very good work for the past couple of decades (he received a lot of love for Brooklyn, but I still highly recommend his debut feature, Intermission). He's not the sort of person to cover a film with his own fingerprints though, and I strongly suspect that his biggest talent is casting the right people as leading players.

There's a chance that other people could have made this work, but it's undeniable that it's hard to imagine anyone else doing as well as Garfield and Pugh. The former is unbelievably sweet and lovely in a way that aligns with what we've seen from Garfield in some of his real-life moments (interactions with fans, chat show conversations, etc), and Pugh gets to show a strength and determination that has been in the DNA of many of the characters she has played while making a hell of a name for herself since she started her movie career back in 2014. Lee Braithwaite does fantastic work, playing a supportive colleague/chef named Jade, Grace Delaney manages to be a cute child without ever being too irritating, and the rest of the cast includes familiar faces such as Aoife Hinds, Adam James, Douglas Hodge, Niamh Cusack, and Kerry Godliman, as well as the less familiar, but no less welcome, Nikhil Parmar, who certainly deserves a mention for being involved in a sequence that provides a perfect mix of tension, humour, reality, and ridiculousness.

There will be many who already know that they don't want to see this, and the ongoing sub-plot about a painful medical diagnosis won't be an easy watch for anyone who has had to watch a loved one go through anything similar, but I'd encourage most to give it a go. It takes you through a wide range of emotions, uses the time jumps to try and play around with your expectations, and ends in a way that feels thoughtful and satisfying.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Under The Silver Lake (2018)

Although this is his third feature film, David Robert Mitchell's Under The Silver Lake most definitely feels like a sophomore effort. It's a film made by someone who has been given the budget and casting choices to let loose and indulge himself after making a name with his previous outing (in this case, the enjoyable It Follows).

The plot, seemingly dense but also actually fairly slim for the 2hr+ runtime, sees a young man named Sam (Andrew Garfield) drawn into a Hitchcockian web that involves a missing girl (Riley Keough), a number of local urban legends, and a conspiracy theory so grandiose that it dances and twirls through absurd territory. It's a mix of The Big Lebowski, Inherent Vice, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, with the obvious influence of The Long Goodbye also in there. It's also frustrating, because so many individual moments are great, without adding up to anything really worthwhile.

Garfield is great in the lead role, playing someone smart but without any drive or focus. He's so likeable that it's easy to watch the film without being preoccupied by the many questions we should have about him. What happened recently in his life? What did he do to get money when he was working? How the hell does he attract some gorgeous women while placing himself firmly in slacker/loser territory? You get some details that help to answer the first question but not much else. Now I don't need a film to fill in every space for me but when you spend most of the lengthy runtime with a character who delves deeper and deeper into an investigation of his own making then it's good to know a bit more about that character, as far as I am concerned. Instead, Mitchell's script is more concerned with putting together a collage of cool visual motifs and soundtrack choices. It's a fever dream, but one without the sense of urgency or energy, which is an odd combination.

The direction matches the script, not bothering about logic or coherence when there's a chance to jump from one memorable moment to the next (and the less said about the repeated touch of having women turn to the main character and eventually start making dog noises the better). This means that you get a lot of wonderful moments in a film that only had to bring them all together in a satisfying way to become something great. It doesn't manage that, instead turning into one of those enjoyable albums that you stay in love with because there are always two or three tracks that you skip, leading to some confusion about why you love it so on the rare occasions when you listen to it all the way through.

Alongside Garfield, Keough does well in her small role, and you have decent turns from Riki Lindhome, Grace Van Patten, Jimmi Simpson, Topher Grace, and, in one particularly memorable scene, Jeremy Bobb, playing a super-talented songwriter responsible for all of the most memorable tunes throughout the years. The acting is pretty flawless throughout, which is another major plus helping to keep the film enjoyable in the lesser scenes.

I liked this, at times I liked it a lot, but it's obviously a film that was made by Mitchell coming up with some memorable ideas and moments that he then had to find a plot for. I don't think he came up with a good enough plot, not for the lack of trying, but the individual moments ensure that it's not without many pleasures for cinephiles.

7/10

Here's the film on shiny disc.
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Bonus Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Here it is. The sequel to the superhero reboot that nobody felt was really needed. Marc Webb returns to direct, everyone gets to reprise their onscreen roles, and the new faces are all welcome additions. It may still lag behind the Raimi movies, but this is a step up from the film preceding it.

Things are about to get pretty stressful for your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man/Peter Parker (played by Andrew Garfield). He's worried about how his superhero duties may endanger the lovely Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), he still wants to find out more about his parents (played by Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz), and there's a new villain to deal with in the shape of crackling, supercharged Electro (Jamie Foxx). And when Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) comes back into town . . . . . . . . . . well, I think most fans of Spidey will know what's going to happen there.

Deftly stepping between light and dark moments, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 feels, at times, like a teen comedy riff on the character. From the opening sequence, showing a determined villain (Paul Giamatti), driving through town with a load of stolen plutonium while Spider-Man tries to stop him, to the very last scene of the film, Spider-Man seems completely at ease win his role, and sure that he'll win out. Thankfully, the movie throws enough at him to give him doubt, but it's fun to hang out with a superhero who doesn't spend the majority of the film as a tortured soul. Oh, he has his moments, but they don't taint the entire movie. This is a fun blockbuster, but one that ups the stakes just in time for a gripping third act.

The script, by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, is fine, I guess. Everything is sketched out well enough, and Garfield gets a lot of lines that provide laughs, but it's also very heavy-handed at times (although that's nothing new when it comes to Spider-Man movies). It's admirable that the film never feels rushed or overloaded, despite the extra villains in the mix, as well as the developed backstory for Peter's absent parents.

Webb clearly has a blast this time around, and that feeling is shared with the viewing audience. Swing around the town with Spidey, revel in some of the huge set-pieces that provide some great eye candy, and enjoy the fights that always seem to allow Spider-Man one or two of his usual smartass lines, no matter how beaten and out of breath he is. The CGI certainly dominates at times, especially in the second half, but it's all polished enough to make the excess a bit easier to accept.

The other element making things easier to accept is the great cast. Garfield and Stone are still fantastic in their roles, with the former especially good at doing the slightly mopey teen schtick without seeming too irritating. Sally Field is fine as Aunt May, and Scott and Davidtz are good to see in their small roles. But it's the villains that everyone gets excited for, and what a selection of good folk being bad this movie has for you. Foxx is great, both as the timid and "invisible" Max Dillon and then, later, as the powerful Electro. You really feel sorry for him, in both incarnations, before he decides to embrace his powers and make his mark. Dane DeHaan doesn't get as much sympathy, but he's no less enjoyable as Harry/Green Goblin. Anyone hoping to see much of Giamatti will be disappointed, as his role is little more than an extended cameo this time, but he still does well with the limited screentime. Colm Feore is easy to dislike, as a conniving member of the Oscorp team, Chris Cooper is Norman Osborn, the man responsible (directly and indirectly) for most of the events in the movie, Felicity Jones is sadly underused as Felicia, an assistant to Harry, and there's another Stan Lee cameo, although it's more groan-inducing than amusing in this instance.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 looks good, sounds good (top marks to Hans Zimmer for the score, especially anything accompanying the scenes featuring Dillon/Electro), and doesn't disappoint anyone looking for superior blockbuster entertainment. It also sets everything up for a mouth-watering next instalment without those building blocks feeling like too much of a distraction. It's not up there with the best of the recent superhero movies, because some of them have really raised the bar of late, but it's a fun time at the cinema and one that I look forward to picking up on shiny disc.

7/10

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The Social Network (2010).

Before The Social Network was released it was one of the few movies in 2010 that I knew I just didn’t want to miss seeing at the cinema. Everything just seemed to be in place for the making of a modern classic. A cracking script by Aaron Sorkin based on a book by Ben Mezrich. David Fincher directing – the guy has done no wrong thus far in his career, in my view. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Rooney Mara, Justin Timberlake, Rashida Jones, Max Minghella and Armie Hammer in the main roles – all may not be household names but I’m a huge fan of Eisenberg and the cast list signalled something aimed directly at those who had been making the most of Facebook since it’s creation.

 

I went to the cinema and something amazing happened, something that has been happening less and less frequently in the past few years. I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I was absolutely blown away by the whole thing and engrossed from beginning to end.

 

There’s no doubt that certain liberties have been taken with the truth here and there (indeed, Mark Zuckerberg would try to convinve everyone that almost the entire movie is a complete fiction) but this is a barnstorming interpretation of the events that saw Zuckerberg (played, brilliantly, by Jesse Eisenberg) create Facebook and upset a number of people in the process, including the Winklevoss brothers (both played by Armie Hammer, with help from Josh Pence) and Zuckerberg’s best friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield).

 

Structurally, the movie starts with the evening that saw the genesis of what would eventually lead to the creation of Facebook and then moves on to show the two major depositions that Zuckerberg is involved in some time later before hopping back and forth between the most important moments in Zuckerberg’s professional life, including his involvement with Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake as the man who created Napster).

 

What ends up surprising most people when they view The Social Network is just how enjoyable and interesting it all is, quite an achievement considering it’s really the ultimate “nerd made good” tale interspersed by some legal wranglings in a boardroom. Computer programming and depositions do not make for exciting cinema but Fincher spins gold here thanks to the performances, the script so sharp it could be used to provide a clean close shave and his mastery of the camerawork mixing with an unusual, and highly impressive, soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

 

Eisenberg, it must be said, is playing someone who comes across as quite unlikeable but he does it brilliantly, portraying a man as bored and frustrated as he is intelligent. Garfield is more than his equal and when the two are working with, and sometimes against, each other it’s just a double helping of superb acting. Hammer and Minghella are both excellent but it’s worth, perhaps, specifically mentioning how good Justin Timberlake is for those doubtful of the singer’s talent. His portrayal of Sean Parker has the cockiness and showbiz-grin that you’d expect but also changes as we start to see the paranoid, sneaky little man behind the dotcom assurety. Rooney Mara plays Erica Albright, a girl who makes a massive impact on Zuckerberg’s life, and she does very well with her limited screentime. There are plenty of other people in the cast and my not mentioning them is in no way a slight on their performances, it’s simply that this film is full of the right people in the right roles doing the right stuff.

I could go on and on but I fear I’ve already spent too much time rambling like a rabid David Fincher fanboy (which, I suppose, I am). This is another cinematic masterpiece from one of my favourite directors.  

10/10

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