Whiplash
DIRECTED AND WRITTEN BY: Damien Chazelle, STARRING: Miles Teller, J. K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, RUN TIME: 107 Mins, RELEASE: 2014
Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man's life. Andrew's passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability-and his sanity.
There's no doubt in my mind that this has been one of the strongest award seasons in recent years. It's had its fair share of controversy like any year in regard to chosen films and other particular sensitive subject matters, but it's been a great one nevertheless; as far as I'm concerned. One of 2014's greatest standout films is arguably Whiplash; the story of a young man struggling to make it as an elite musician (in short).
The varied award ceremonies were quick to shower Whiplash with assorted ornamental statues with J.K. Simmons winning 'Best Supporting' actor (although a 'Best Actor' recognition wouldn't have gone amiss either) for his role as Terence Fletcher an amazing 34 times. I t would have been great to see Miles teller bag something too for his part). Whiplash also took home several other assorted ornamental prizes, including: 'Best Film Editing', 'Best Sound Mixing', 'Best Adapted Screenplay', 'Best Arthouse Film' and 'Grand Jury Prize', among a host of others. In short, it was popular with the award givers. But, did it hold up for me as a viewer?
Whiplash has a beautifully simple storyline, and is (loosely) based on Chazelle's experiences at Princeton High School, where he was taught by a particularly acute music teacher with whom Fletcher is partially inspired by. It's those personal experiences that give this film so much passion and heart, and to that end, it works perfectly. Whiplash doesn't suffer from an overcrowded unnecessarily plot. It is a wonderful character-piece that achieves everything that it sets out to do, and nothing less. Whiplash is simply a story of struggle, dreams, obsession, determination and development; told through masterful script-work and inspired, focused direction.
The casting of it's two lead characters (Neyman and Fletcher) couldn't have been any better, in my opinion. As far as I'm concerned, Simmons deserves every bit of credit, praise and recognition for his phenomenal portrayal of the drill sergeant-like, ruthless, ball-breaking music teacher. Simmons envelopes himself in the role to brilliant and intimidating results, and spews marvellously some of the most quotable insults I've ever heard since watching Stanley Kubrick's Full metal Jacket. I couldn't stop chuckling at every venomous quick-witted scathing comment that came out of his mouth. Physically he looked great too and it complimented his spoken performance wonderfully. Though he won so many justified awards for his role, I really have to give shared credit to Miles Teller, who gave Simmons so much to work with and feed from. Neyman's journey was emotional and thought-provoking and Teller's portrayal of it (at the very root of his performance) could easily be described as just that. He literally put his blood, sweat and tears into making this the greatest performance of his career so far, and it absolutely paid off in spades. This is without a doubt the finest pairing of two actors that I have seen for many years, and probably will see for many more to come.
So what of the music itself? There's been a fair bot of criticism from the Jazz snobs on the authenticity of its sound. To be honest, you're always going to get those types of critics looking for any way to rip all your hard work apart. That being said, for me the actual music for Whiplash was kind of a background thing for me; I liked what I heard when the whole band were playing, but I really didn't place it too high on my list of what I loved about it. Although like I said, I did enjoy it. However, I must confess to one thing; too much drumming starts to get on my nerves. I appreciate completely the stamina, skill, rhythm, energy, love, dedication, strength, blood, sweat, tears and absolute awesomeness that goes into playing them, I do. It is a skill that I could only ever dream to have. Drum playing is an art-form. I love to hear the drums in anything, they provide the tempo of the entire piece of music. That being said, when it comes to drum solos, my ears really can't take more than 30 seconds of them. After that, that just tend to irritate me and sound like a mess of banging noise. I'm sure they are not, but that's just how my brain processes it. That's why the music in this film really takes a backbeat for me. Still, with my ability to appreciate the art-form itself remaining intact, I can say without a doubt that anyone who likes drumming will certainly be massively impressed, and they will no doubt appreciate it a hell of a lot more than me without reaching for the volume button to turn it down.
I really would like to sum up, but to be honest I think I have said it all already. If you have not yet seen this remarkable piece of artistry then go and see it right now. You will not be disappointed, and it will leave you feeling uniquely satisfied.