tick, tick... BOOM! (2021)
Film details
Drama · Music · Lin-Manuel Miranda · 1h 55min
Synopsis
On the brink of turning 30, a promising theater composer navigates love, friendship and the pressure to create something great before time runs out.
Verdict
Normalizes homosexuality in a secondary character within a musical about artistic aspirations.
In-depth analysis
The film adapts Jonathan Larson's autobiographical musical with notable narrative skill and visual energy. Lin-Manuel Miranda directs with a steady hand a narrative about the existential anguish of the young artist: the fear of failure, the pressure of time, the dilemma between financial security and creative vocation. Andrew Garfield delivers a convincing performance, and the musical numbers are resolved with inventiveness.
The underlying issue emerges in the character of Michael, the protagonist's best friend, whose homosexuality is presented naturally as part of the story's emotional landscape. The work neither debates nor problematizes: it simply installs the character's sexual orientation as another fact of his identity, without moral consequences or questioning. This silent normalization is precisely the most effective form of cultural engineering, because it operates without visible ideological fanfare.
For parents: the film's artistic merits do not negate the underlying alert. Not recommended for minors or for adults without formed discernment.