Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021) review

Semi-autobiography of spunky Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) who dreams of "making it" in musical theater, but still has to work at the (sadly gone) Moondance Diner, live in less-than-optimal apartments and deal with his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) leaving him.  This is the kind of story Broadway loves to tell to itself: the "down-and-out" artist who "suffers for his craft" and "deals with endless rejection" and manages to reject working a 9-to-5 in advertising only to dig inside himself and produce a masterwork ... and then pass away tragically at the age of 35.  It's all very sanctimonious and kind of egotistical, and then there's Garfield himself who, in the three movies he's been in this past year (the other two being Mainstream and The Eyes of Tammy Faye), has shown that there is such thing as "underplaying" and it's all "no gas no brakes" in every scene no matter what.  Special mention needs to be made for Bradley Whitford playing Stephen Sondheim: that's as good an impression of the maestro I've ever seen.