Brilliantly crafted and fantastically brutal

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2018)

Lets be honest, guys. This is one of those movies where the story sounds lame, but the movie... well, we can just say it speaks for itself.
I'll be honest, when I pressed play on this, I had absolutely no idea what I was walking into; I was just willing to try it. The intro drumming began, the first shot of Andrew with the camera slowly moving down a corridor came to... I was hooked. This movie does not suffer because of the lack of atmosphere at all; it doesn't need music. In fact, it utilises the jazz music that the movie is based around to provide the atmosphere, which may be one of the cleverest techniques I've seen; it helps to engage in the film far quicker than you may usually do, similar to the music at the start of 2001: A Space Odyssey. In fact, Whiplash is incredible looking at it from a critical perspective; the way the title is interweaved with the movie's theme, the music, the acting, the direction, the dialogue; everything. I could write a 10 page essay on how good this movie is and why.
Fletcher's character is ingenious, probably the most well developed, intruiging movie character I've ever encountered. His character creates all these senses of fascination, but with a brutal deliverance that allows those emotions to be mixed with an element of fear. Trust me, you won't soon find another one like him. His dialogue is so clever, made to feel like nothing and everything is due to happen in the moments that follow the one you are engaged in. The huge amount of swearing only serves to add character; and in fact, Fletcher is so well crafted, you can almost feel the way Andrew changes throughout the film as he gradually loses his humility and nearly all his positivity, in multiple scenes drumming so intensely that he makes his hands bleed, then plasters them up and continues drumming.
The story... wow, the story is good. It's absolutely relentless with its harsh telling, with shouting, swearing and equipment being thrown at people's heads at every twist and turn. In fact, it offers the whole package; determination, completely unpredicted twists, one of the most brilliant character motive stories in the form if Fletcher's explanation, even an out-of-nowhere shocking moment. And yet everything is cleverly integrated, along with the music, to make you feel a part of the whole traumatic experience.
To give you an idea of how powerful this movie is, my mind has been flashing back to it's best scenes every day for a month now. Despite how hard it is to watch, struggle on, because you will never critically view a movie the same way again.