Tick Tock Boom Clap

Preteen Sara Pedri's crush on future a future Broadway star may not have led to romance, but now, thirty years later, the chance to appear in a show he's guest choreographing seems the perfect way to get over her father's recent death and get on with her life. Melissa Fahn lights up the big screen in a beautifully nuanced, utterly engaging star performance as Sara (coincidentally or not so coincidentally the same name as the filmmaker's) and she couldn't have found a better leading man than Sam Zeller, Captain Hook to her Peter Pan in this backstage romantic comedy with heart. The film has a professional look that belies what was surely a shoestring budget. Supporting cast performances are uniformly fine, and I loved the original song score by Joel Alpers. Kudos to writer Sara Pedri and co-directors Sara and Jason Pedri. Musical theater lovers will get a special kick out of Tick Tock Boom Clap, but you don't have to be a show queen to fall under its spell.

We both liked it. It's a great, small budget, feel good movie. We watch quite a few small budget movies. Many of them are amazing, others difficult to watch all the way through. This is closer to amazing. Interesting casting, including some theater veterans. Decent lighting and sound. A fun plot and some unexpected plot twists. Some people aren't crazy about indy films, but they're definitely some of our favorites. First, any movie that makes me feel good, laugh a little, be surprised, without totally annoying me is good. It's so much work and money to pull these indy films off, it takes a lot of sacrifice and blood, sweat and tears. Sometimes it just doesn't work, and it's annoying to me to finish watching. Sometimes you just can feel the passion of everyone involved, and it's fun. This is one of those movies.