Interesting take on the classic story of getting through by effort

Rating: 8/10 (1 October 2015)

You've seen this before, usually in sports movies, where some guy or girl is set to get through some very difficult competition and works their ass off to make it. Whiplash is not really about the finishing competition, but about the mindset of the person wanting to "get there" and of the teacher who needs to find a prodigy to validate their own efforts. Most of all, the film is extraordinary for making the viewers ask themselves if there is a line and when can you consider it crossed, in both pupil and teacher.
Other than that, though, I felt that the movie was close to mediocre. J.K. Simmons seems to have won the Oscar as recognition for all his acting jobs, because I can think of several actors of the top of my head that could have played the same role. It wasn't such a difficult role, not compared to the one Miles Teller played, at least. He did all the drumming scenes himself and 40% of the drums in the soundtrack are him playing.
The ending, of course, is epic and the "training montages" are pretty convincing of the will of the music student, but the music does not convince me. I am not into jazz, but I've scoured the 'net and it's not either a spectacular style of music and even the musical references are not that accurate.
Bottom line: could be inspiring, but I rather appreciated it for the guts to make the viewer consider boundaries, for them and others, in the teaching process, rather than for any spectacular acting or scripting. Worth a watch, surely.