All it takes is two, Teller and Simmons lead the way in Whiplash

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2015)

I had high expectations going into to this movie the other day and I must say it delivered. Miles Teller stars as Andrew Neiman, a promising young drummer who enrolls at the Shaffer Conservatory which is one of the best music schools in the US and he wants to be the best he can be and one of the greats. Enter Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), a ruthless conductor who happens to be looking for a new drum alternate. One of the great qualities of this film is the relationship between Andrew and Fletcher as it plays a bit like a two man show and how the relationship between the two changes as the film progresses as it is them two that carry the film on their back. This film is great as it also proves you don't need a well known cast to have a beautifully made film. One weakness is the lack of character development between the other band members as they're in the periphery for most of the film although the supporting roles from Paul Reiser as Andrew's father and Melissa Benoist as Andrew's girlfriend Nicole add just a little bit of sparkle. Positives for this movie are the performances of the two leads in Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons, the storytelling as it takes you for a ride with the use of the music played throughout the practice scenes and the cinematography is superb. I had only previously seen Miles Teller in Divergent but boy is he a young star on the rise as he has talent to burn and I have seen J.K. Simmons in a few Coen Brothers movies and Spiderman but this is the first time in his career as a successful character actor that he completely steals the show with his tirade of insults towards his student accompanied with acerbic wit and the like and when is yelling at the class, I could feel my pulse racing as if he was also yelling at the audience which makes it play out like a thriller even though this film is technically not a thriller. Truly a great manipulative villain here in Fletcher as he made me despise him. I don't normally say this but in my opinion, Simmons is so great here that he must win the Oscar as he gives one of the best supporting performances of the last decade and anything less would feel like a tragedy.