Contextual Analysis

 

Contextual Analysis - Tick Tick Boom

Tick Tick Boom is a 2021 biographical musical film of Jonathan Larson, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. This film is about a struggling composer in New York in 1990, he tries to finish writing his musical before his 30th birthday.

The location in New York helps reflect Jonathan Larson’s struggles and dreams. Jonathan’s crammed apartment, with unreliable electricity power convey his financial struggles and how much he sacrifices as an artist that wishes to peruse his dreams. The small amount of space reflects Jonathan’s mental and emotional pressure.

The Moondance Diner, where Jonathan works part-time. This location is were you see the character interacting with friends, struggling to pay his bills, break down and question his life. This location helps represent the concept of dreams vs reality. Jonathan takes part in this part-time job in hopes of achieving his dreams in the theatre.

This film is set in NYC in the early 1990s mainly in Manhattan, this city (NYC) is globally known for bustling streets, creativity, theatre and success. This towering skyscraper and fast movie streets convey the feeling of ambition and struggle. The feeling of not being able to reach goals as time goes by and feeling stuck and unnoticed. Jonathan’s experience and feelings can be seen reflected in the way NYC is presented.

 I would say I found the way emotion it represented through out the movie was the most interesting part. In the movie, the songs were all a great way to show how the characters were feeling and this was bound to happen as the film is a musical.

 The characters in the movie are realistic, none of them are perfect and you get to connect with most of the characters in the film. Mostly the main character Jonathan has a character development that helps the audience connect with the character. At the start of the film, you can tell that Jonathan is trying to achieve his dream of becoming a theatre composer. Then you see his struggling even more as he slowly loses his 'people' as he finds it hard to manage his work and life. Towards the end, he ends up realising.

Although the first half of the film is engaging, after the Sunday musical the film slows down, shifting to a more melancholic  tone. The pacing of the film may feel uneven as the final act doesn't have the same momentum as the first.

What I will take from this film is how the setting represents how the main character is feeling and what they are going through. I will also use Voiceover like in this film to express the emotions the main character is feeling as well as a mix of old footage and pictures. As to also choosing a location to match an emotion, for example to represent the feeling of being lost and confused the location could be set in a open field with the main character with a long establishing shot. This will help the character appear isolated, the empty space around will make them look small and as if they are disconnected to everything else.