STREAMING

You cease being a w riter who waits tables and become a waiter w ith a hobby.

Ben Platt as Evan Hansen.

TICK, TICK… BOOM!

(Netf lix)

ndrew Garfield, a great

ALGBTQIA+ ally, is brilliant as the young playwright, Jonathan Larson, waiting tables in New York City while trying everything in the book to get his first musical produced.

It’s 1990 and HIV/AIDS is advancing stealthily across the city and the President denies it even exists.

The world’s about to end for young Larson, he fears, because he’s just turned 30: “You reach a certain age where you cease being a writer who waits tables and become a waiter with a hobby.” That sort of writing ultimately led him to change theatre history by writing the musical Rent.

Tragically, this burgeoning talent was cut down way too soon. Larson died at 35 of a heart condition just before Rent opened on Broadway and subsequently ran for 12 years.

This story of his first musical is simply stunning. It’s energetic, introspective, ebullient and exhausting, but so worth it. The number Come To Your Senses is just awesome. For the duration of the film, Garfield sucks you into his vortex, defying you not to barrack for Larson, who’s fighting his own demons, nonbelieving producers, and the clock.

So far, he’s spent eight years writing a show that’s never gonna happen and he’s already over the hill. Sondheim, he points out, was 27 when he had his first show on Broadway.

The lines keep coming: “Having a workshop showcase for my musical is like having a colonoscopy in Times Square.”

All the while he’s facing career doom, his world is being ravaged by AIDS: “Half my friends are dying; the other half are afraid of it.”

But it’s not bleak. Somehow this talented young man’s amazing spirit cuts through the blackness around him. Irony, for him, was more a way of life than just a theatrical convention. Why should we try to be our best when we can just get by?

It’s beautifully directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose sense of rhythm (in text, editing, blocking, camerawork and score) has never shone better. And that’s saying something. Great support cast, too, like Judith Light as his agent and Pose’s MJ Rodriguez. The real Larson appears during the end credits. (PG-13, 115 mins)

Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson.

Garfield and Bernadette Peters as Sunday Legend.

Robin De Jesus as Michael, MJ Rodriguez as Carolyn and Ben Levi Ross as Freddy.

MAYOR PETE (Prime Video) High hopes were pinned on Pete Buttigieg’s run for the White House against Donald Trump in 2020. Even higher hopes are pinned on him announcing he’ll run again.

This doco gives excellent background and insight into the gay man who would be king of the free world, and reveals at least something of what makes him tick.

Every presidential race begins with a cluttered field of candidates, all convinced they’ll be anointed. It’s hard to stand out. But Buttigieg had the dubious advantage of an unpronounceable name, and filmmaker Jesse Moss kicks off this doco with a collection of high-profile attempts, ending with Trump’s hilarious, “It’s Boot… Edge… Edge,” said with the conviction of a man covering ignorance with bluster. For the record, it’s “Butter-jidge”.

There are other ways to stand out. The candidate himself admits: “This is the only chance you’ll ever get to vote for a MalteseAmerican left-handed Episcopalian gay warveteran mayor to be President.”

Hopefully, it won’t be the only chance.

We get face-to-face interviews with Buttigieg himself, and several key people in his corner, like comms director Lis Smith: “Pete’s the absolute opposite of Trump and that’s what people want. He’s not going out there as a circus act. The challenge, of course, is how you master the game without it changing you.”

And that’s it in a nutshell. At the end of the day, he’s a politician. How long will he be able to hold onto his humanity and vision and drive without it being diluted?

Being the first openly gay presidential candidate is just awesome, but he clearly knows it’s not enough: “I don’t believe it makes me any better or worse at my job. Anyone who’s had experience as an ‘other’ can draw on that to make sure they tackle other examples of exclusion.”

Which is the perfect political answer.

His delivery style is the antithesis of Trump’s. He’s quietly spoken, well-reasoned, and carefully modulated. But, as Smith admits, that can be colourless and boring: “He’s coming across like the fuckin’ Tin Man up there.”

You can often get a clearer picture of a person by looking at their ref lection in their spouse. There are long interviews with Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten (pronounced with a hard T), not offering anything surprising but nonetheless reassuring: “When you run for president you invite people to tear you apart.”

At heart, it’s being gay that sets him apart like nothing else. It’s also where he’s most passionate and most convincing: “When I was young I would’ve done anything to not be gay; I would’ve taken a pill, or cut it out with a knife.”

In a quite moment, his husband chastens him: “Would you really have ended your life? Sorta sounded like it. You gotta be clear.”

Later, from Pete: “Being on the road with Chasten really helps me; even if we only have quality time together at the beginning and the end of each day.”

And it’s those moments between two men in love with each other that bring home a real hope for something different in the future. (R in the US for language, 96 mins)

CAM BOY, SERIES 1 (Prime Video, OUTtv in US/Canada, Froot in UK/Ireland) A Broadway chorus boy, forced out of work by covid, has to find inventive ways to make ends meet during the pandemic and discovers, finally, that online sex work can be quite lucrative. Ep 1 opens with our boy (Callum Dunphy) facing quarantine and in urgent need of $1,500 for the rent while he’s in Nova Scotia. His mate suggests a way to make a minimum of $2 to $3,000 a month – with the promise of up to $6,000 a month. “Get comfortable going nude before you have to,” is the first advice to help him prepare. “Remember, people want to interact with you, not watch you. And wax off your body hair.” It’s a bit daunting at first, and he struggles to put himself out there, but a good mate is happy to teach him how to drop his daks in front of a laptop screen and just do whatever comes naturally. And his clients are only too eager to pay him to come naturally. The only f law in the plan could be the approval of his boyfriend, or lack thereof, who’s trapped in New York. There’s lots of full-frontal nudity, as is only appropriate, and it doesn’t hurt that Dunphy is gorgeous. It’s a Canadian production, written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald who recently made Stage Mother with Jacki Weaver and Cloudburst with Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker (who gets a cameo in Cam Boy). Now, anyone bored in quarantine looking to Clive Owen as Bill Clinton. make some money? (6 episodes x 20 mins each, explicit male frontal and rear nudity)

Pete’s the absolute opposite of Trump… He’s not going out there as a circus act.