As of late, I have taken a fascination with the acting prowess of Andrew Garfield. Time and time again, he has shown his capabilities as an actor, becoming my favorite working in the industry right now. From playing Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man to Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network (one of my favorite movies of all time), his brilliance never ceases to amaze me.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, someone who I have mixed opinions on is Lin-Manuel Miranda. As a writer, I believe Miranda’s work is quite exceptional. The clearest example of this is Hamilton, but even some of his earlier work like In the Heights was a nice experience as well. That being said, as an actor, singer, and performer, I believe Miranda misses the mark by a lot. Something about his performance as Alexander Hamilton in the play named after him sticks out like a sore thumb… So much so, that I believe if someone else was cast in that role, I would have enjoyed Hamilton more.

One thing I wasn’t expecting, however, were these two incredibly different people to join forces to create a biopic about the late, great Jonathan Larson, creator of the Broadway musical Rent. After watching the trailer, I was weirdly drawn to the idea! As an actor, I am a sucker for musicals. Not to mention, I was not familiar with Jonathan Larson before seeing this trailer and seeing Andrew Garfield in the role prompted me to learn more about him!

What I wasn’t very excited for was the film directorial debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Before turning on Tick, Tick… Boom! on Netflix, I decided to listen to the opening number of the film and was hooked when I found out that Andrew Garfield learned how to sing to play Larson. From there, I turned the movie on with a bowl of popcorn in hand and… I could safely say that it was the most average experience watching a movie I’ve had in a very long time. One thing that I didn’t realize before watching this movie was that Tick, Tick… Boom! itself was a play that Jonathan Larson wrote prior to creating Rent, although he passed away before its first Off-Broadway performance.

The film captured the life of Larson while he was trying to find success as a struggling 29-year-old artist, who is about to turn 30. I can’t help but feel a little bummed that this movie only followed Larson during this little section of his life because I was desperate to see more. That expectation aside, the plot, though it wasn’t bad, was devoid of a lot of character. I felt like it was missing something and left me feeling a tad bit disappointed. Not only that, but I felt the entire film itself lacked character and felt very much like someone’s first movie. I guess I can’t blame Miranda for this, however, because it actually was his.

With that being said, nothing this movie does is inherently terrible. But nothing is spectacular either, with the exception of one thing: Andrew Garfield. I’ve been talking very highly of him for this entire article, I know, but I am completely serious when I say that Garfield is the reason why this movie has the praise that it does. Garfield owns the role and I feel that no one else could have done it as well as he does. He has already won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical and I would not be surprised if he is placed among the nominees for Best Actor in the 2022 Oscars. To reiterate a point I made earlier, Garfield learned how to sing for this role and, if you listen to any of the songs that he sings in the soundtrack, you cannot help but be impressed by the significant improvement that he made in only one year of learning.

Unfortunately, that’s the only notable part of this movie because I believe it falls flat due to the lack of directorial style from Miranda. Now personally, I am not sure if this was Miranda’s complete vision for the film or if there was immense studio interference that hindered the final product, but I wish the movie was less dull overall. I believe that if they got someone else to direct the film like Steven Spielberg, who just directed the new West Side Story, or Damien Chazelle, director of La La Land and Whiplash, this movie would have been an absolute “must watch.”

Now, if you are a fan of Miranda’s work as a whole and want to see this movie, then I recommend that you do! If you are an Andrew Garfield fan and want to see his next big role, then I advise you watch it too! But if you are turning on Netflix, expecting to be blown away by the complete production of this film, you might be a bit disappointed by the end.

But most importantly, this movie does a great job of portraying Jonathan Larson and dealing with the concept of time. Larson died at an extremely young age and his legacy is nicely carried on through the film. It could have been something spectacular, especially if it had fallen into the right hands.