How do Andrew Garfield and Lin-Manuel Miranda Create the Perfect Arc for a Flawed Protagonist?

    Jonathan Larson was an extremely talented artist. Superbia is a fantastical social commentary which will unfortunately never see the light of day, Rent was an unbelievably successful Broadway spectacle but to me his most valuable and heartfelt piece of work was tick, tick... BOOM! A beautiful commentary on Larson's own life and the struggles he faced when writing Superbia for years on end for it to always fail and almost consume him entirely, is a scarily real reality for many artists especially those approaching 30 like Larsen.

    Lin-Manuel Miranda's authentic love and understanding for tick, tick... BOOM! and clear appreciation for what Larson was able to do for musical theatre with Rent shines here as his directing creates one of 2021's best films. Andrew Garfield's portrayal of Larson was an absolute stand-out and easily warranted an Oscar nomination (and should've netted him his first win). What the two are able to achieve here with Larson's original work is absolutely extraordinary. The film's pacing throughout is very consistent and the strong emotional core it holds with Larson unable to realise how he is pushing away those so dear to him as the writing for Superbia's big second act song takes a hold of him.

    The way Larson writes himself in tick...tick...BOOM! is fantastically honest. Its this honesty in the film and the pure unfiltered emotion of Andrew's performance and in particular singing during songs like Louder Than Words and Why that makes what could easily be such an unlikeable protagonist feel perfectly real and flawed in the same way as any of us. We feel connected to Larson due to his love for his art and the constant ticking motif and his inner thoughts always being told to audience to clue us into how he isn't self-centred and that's the reason for the lack of communication with characters like Susan its this fear and pressure to create something and make it big before his dreaded 30th birthday.

    Miranda and Garfield walk a fine line between making Larsen heroic and villainous. In fact he's almost given a hero's journey with Rosa's wisdom of writing something close to home and real to him leading him to becoming more connected with those around him and leading to the creation of Rent. It's this almost hero like character arc for the character which is a brave choice for musical based in reality that pays off into making one of the best written and performed roles of the year.