Film

tick, tick... BOOM!

Name: tick, tick... BOOM!
Genre: Drama, Music
Released: 2021
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Ben Levi Ross

Andrew Garfield's Jonathan Larson sits at a piano, wrestling with ambition, mortality, and the question of whether he'll ever make it. *tick, tick... BOOM!* is a love letter to musical theater and the artists who pour everything into it. Urgent, funny, and genuinely moving. For anyone who's felt the weight of their own potential.

TMDb rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love backstage restlessness and songs that spill out of a person's anxious head, the kind of show about making a show where the stage fright is as loud as the score.

Skip it if you want a neat, linear musical, since its rhythm is restless and talky and the self-absorption can wear thin.

What it asks of you: It runs about two hours and keeps moving at a nervous, jittery clip, so it wants your full attention rather than background company.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Dear Evan Hansen2021

A musical about anxiety and connection that finds grace in awkwardness. Ben Platt carries the emotional weight with real vulnerability. If you loved Larson's desperate sincerity, this speaks the same language.

But It's one of the most divisive musicals in years—some find it mawkish, others feel the film adaptation loses what worked on stage. Fair criticism exists.

Rent2005

Larson's actual masterpiece, the show he was writing toward. This film captures the scrappy, joyful, heartbreaking energy of downtown theater in the 90s. Essential context and deeply moving on its own.

But It's dated in ways that can feel preachy now. The film version is competent but not revelatory—you might prefer the stage production or the soundtrack.

In the Heights2021

Jon M. Chu directs a dazzling musical about ambition in Washington Heights. The energy is infectious, the emotional stakes are real, and it captures that same hunger to create and belong.

But Some found the film version glossier than the stage show. If you're looking for raw authenticity, the original Broadway version might hit harder.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from tick, tick... BOOM!

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007

Both are preoccupied with legacy—how an artist's myth reshapes what they actually were. Both center on younger men consumed by someone else's grandeur. Both ask: what does dying mean to the living?

Roger Deakins' cinematography and Andrew Dominik's direction create something almost like a poem about fame, jealousy, and the distance between who you are and who people think you are. It's about obsession and mythology. Different era, different genre, but the same examination of a great life cut short and what it means.

But It's a Western and it's bleak. If you want energy and music, this is meditative and still. Some find it glacial.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford poster

Hedwig and the Angry Inch2001

John Cameron Mitchell's rock musical about a sculptor, a rock star, and fractured identity. It's raw, electric, and fiercely creative—a movie that feels like it had to exist.

But It's abrasive and deliberately unsexy in places. The film is deliberately lower-budget and theatrical in a way that won't appeal to everyone.

La La Land2016

Two artists in Los Angeles negotiate love and ambition. It has genuine longing and uses the musical form to express things words can't. A very different movie but united in its romantic view of struggling artists.

But Some found it saccharine. The ending divides people sharply—if you want uncomplicated triumph, you won't get it here.

Sunday in the Park with George1986

Sondheim's masterpiece about an artist obsessed with his work at the cost of everything else. The music is sublime and the moral questions are genuinely troubling. A companion piece in theme.

But It's more cerebral than emotional. The staging can feel static if you're not ready for Sondheim's particular kind of rigor.

The Last Five Years2014

A musical about a marriage told backwards and forwards simultaneously. Jason Robert Brown's score is intricate and heartbreaking. Another work about artists trying to make it together.

But The gimmicky structure overwhelms some people. It can feel more clever than moving if you're not in the mood for that kind of ambition.

What's Love Got to Do with It1993

Angela Bassett as Tina Turner, burning with talent and will. A rock and roll story about fighting for yourself. Less theatrical, but the same hunger.

But It's a conventional biopic in some ways. The film can feel like it's going through the expected beats of the form.

Springsteen on Broadway2018

Both are one person talking directly about ambition, struggle, and whether any of it mattered. No narrative distance, no safety. Just a human being honest about the cost of caring this much.

Bruce Springsteen alone, telling stories from his life between songs. It's funny, sad, and absolutely unfiltered. Not a concert film—it's a memoir performed. A document of an artist measuring his own life.

But If you don't know Springsteen or don't care about him, this is inside baseball. It's slow and reflective, not a show designed to dazzle you.

CODA2021

Both are about young artists at a crossroads, choosing between what they love and what they owe. Both trust music to say what dialogue can't. Both find grace in specific, complicated family relationships.

A hearing teenage girl is her family's interpreter and her school's song star—two worlds pulling her apart. It's intimate, joyful, and about what you owe the people who made you. The music serves the character, not the other way around.

But It's very quiet and domestic. If you're looking for the scale and ambition of tick, tick... BOOM!, this is smaller and warmer instead.