Garfield seems electrified by the task of bringing Larson to life.
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To criticise the songs in this movie is a tricky business, because they come from an autobiographical, 1990 show devised by theatre legend, Jonathan Larson. Can he make a mark, if he gives up his spark?” Macall Polay/NETFLIX In “Johnny Can’t Decide”, he warbles, “Johnny has no guide. Meanwhile, Jon’s beautiful girlfriend (Alexandra Shipp underused) begs him to concentrate on their relationship and Jon’s gay best friend (Robin de Jesus) thinks Jon should get a “proper” job. His colleague, Karessa ( Vanessa Hudgens nerve-shreddingly smiley), wants Jon to write an anthem that will pull the show’s third act together. Driven mad by the ticking of his creative clock, and the desire to be more like his mentor, Stephen Sondheim (played by Bradley Whitford), Jon races to finish a sci-fi musical, called Superbia. The film’s central character is New York-based, rambunctiously curly-haired self-styled bohemian singer/composer, Jon ( Andrew Garfield), who’s about to hit thirty. I blame scriptwriter Steven Levenson and the person who wrote the songs. Despite being a child-free zone, this project is kid-friendly, sentimental and often facile. That said, we expect more from Miranda than ingenuity and those hoping for a game-changer, a la Hamilton, will be disappointed. Miranda is our century’s most prolific renaissance man. You’d never guess writer/singer/rapper/actor Miranda was new to this behind-the-camera game and he juggles the meta scenes with off-kilter exuberance (a diner, through his lens, becomes a lovely multi-verse of weirdness so does a swimming pool). And if the thought of that makes your brain ache, don’t worry. In-Manuel Miranda’s film directing debut has been described as a “musical based on a musical about writing a musical”.
(Miranda himself has a cameo as a short-order cook in the diner where Larson had to work as a waiter in his early years.)
Larson was the composer who created the smash-hit 90s show Rent but died at 35 of an aortic failure, just before opening night, an almost unbearable metaphor for the backstage heartbreak of musical theatre. L in-Manuel Miranda gives us an unashamed sugar rush of showbiz rapture and showbiz solemnity in this heartfelt tribute to Broadway talent Jonathan Larson, played here by Andrew Garfield.