Are you letting yourself be lead by fear or by love?

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Films of 2021 

#27 : tick, tick … BOOM!

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s heartfelt tribute to Broadway features Andrew Garfield as Rent composer Jonathan Larson, in his early years, in a sugar rush of showbiz highs and lows

Yes, I know I've brought this one forward, but it was Elaine's turn to choose the film last night (delayed Mothers Day - thanks, Covid!) and when she expressed an interest in this, our youngest piped up "Cool, I wanted to see that" and we weren't going to be asked twice when given the chance to avoid another animated or teen family movie.  Under normal circumstances, this film would probably have stayed on my "I'll watch it some time" list, but I've been impressed with the clips I've seen when Andrew Garfield has been promoting it, so I was intrigued enough to see what I was going to get.

And yeah, 5 minutes in, this is going to be Andrew's film, isn't it?  It definitely appears to be an over-acty role (who'd have guessed that a composer of musicals would be a larger than life character?) and he's certainly giving it his all.  And that's pretty much how it continues - it's all very arty-meta with the musical being about the writer's struggles involved in making a musical (and it's directed by a guy who was inspired to write musicals after seeing it) but it's very well done arty-meta.

The story is engaging and it's well acted by all, but it is very much Andrew/Jonathan's story - everyone else is given their moment in the spotlight but it's generally about how their interaction with A/J hasn't worked out the way they'd like.  But they'll let him off because, well, whaddya gonna do - it's his musical, after all.  Andrew Garfield is excellent throughout in what is quite a demanding role (especially given his previous lack of singing experience) - everyone else is also great, but Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús and Vanessa Hudgens deserve special mention for their contributions.

The musical numbers which liberally pepper the film are good, but they are elevated by their staging - they are interwoven well with the story (Wikipedia tells me this is called diegesis) and there's an excellent use of movement and space which you have a suspicion Lin-Manuel might have contributed too (the guy is supremely talented whilst also appearing to be annoyingly nice).  I also particularly liked the H.A.W.K. Smooth number which does something different in a very clever fashion.

This is Lin-Manuel's directorial debut, but it's not really the normal kind of debut is it - the man has some experience in running a show.  I'd have been very surprised if it had been rubbish, but I'd say it was really surprisingly good in places - I'd have let him off if he'd shown more evidence of learning on the job.

The Wikipedia article for the film is a very interesting read, particularly around the back-story to the musical - it started life as a monologue performed by Jonathan Larson which basically documented his commerical and artistic struggles and would change dramatically from performance to performance depending upon his current situation.  It only became a musical after his death - and included updates to avoid some of the criticism which Stephen Sondheim (Larson's mentor) made of the monologue.  And given that Stephen Sondheim also features in the musical, it really is all very meta indeed!

And finally, I have to say it has a lovely ending.  Gven that we know things don't end well for Jonathan (he died at the age of 35 on the day before Rent premiered off-Broadway - and it's well worth reading about the premiere on Wikipedia) I was intrigued as to how they'd play it - and I'd have to say they handle it very well indeed. 

All in all, if you like a musical film or a film about musicals, then you've got a win-win situation here backed up by great performances - what are you waiting for?  At time of writing, the film is available to watch on Netflix and given it's a Netflix production I suspect it will be there for quite some time.

#28 - Well this didn't go where I was expecting
#26 - Beautiful, but lacking in content