with the sincerest respect for Jonathan Larson and his career, this is one of the most obnoxious movies i've ever seen in my life. Andrew Garfield's performance is pretty great, but the rest of this production seemed to be all about turning something frenetic, creative, and genuinely engaging into the most bland and annoying possible result. I should clarify I know I'm not the target audience for this movie, but come on. The direction is straight up bad—at times it feels like Lin Manuel Miranda watched a Katy Perry music video and said "yes—that but feature length". At other times, it feels like they fully planned on the audience recognizing cameos from various Broadway actors (and... Black Thought for some reason?) to make the movie seem more interesting than it actually is.

Listen, if you're invested enough in Larson's life to watch this, then this review won't stop you. I'm sure it's a rewarding experience for people who are more engaged in musical theater lore. I personally got more out of the Documentary Now! Stephen Sondheim episode. I gotta watch All That Jazz again to get the taste of this out of my head.