Reel Look: 'Whiplash'

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2015)

"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than "good job". A total pulse-pounding, adrenaline rush of a movie, 'Whiplash' beats the odds as the 2014 American drama nominated for five Academy Awards at the 87th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and (winning) Best Editing and Best Supporting Actor for J.K. Simmons. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, the film is based on his own experiences in the Princeton High School Studio Band, basing Simmons' threatening character in the film on his own band instructor but "pushed it further" adding in bits of Buddy Rich as well as other notorious band leaders. But does the rhythm of the film match its message of unleashing one's deepest realms of potential to its most extreme extent? Let's take a look.
Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is a first-year jazz student at the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory in New York. Aspiring to become one of the greats like his idol Buddy Rich from playing the drums since he was young, cut-throat jazz instructor Terrence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons in an intense Oscar-winning performance) accepts Andrew into his studio as the alternate for Carl, the core drummer. Fletcher is abusive towards his students, as his main priority it to push them, especially Andrew, beyond their best through perspiration blood and tears into the realm of excellence. He takes pride in the fact that Jo Jones threw a cymbal at the young Charlie Parker as Gunnery Sergent Hartman did in the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald learned to shoot in the Marines. Fletcher mocks his pupils and hurls insults as he displays both verbally and physically with a chair of which he throws across the room, nearly missing Andrew's head for not keeping tempo when the band rehearses the Hank Levy piece of the eponymous film title, humiliating him in front of the entire class. He wants to incessantly pound his vision of greatness into Miles as furiously as he in turn pounds his set. Beaten but not broken, Andrew is undeterred to impress Fletcher with everything he's got, practicing, pouring into and pounding his drum set until his instrument is coated in sweat and blood while oozing blisters tear up his hands. The ending of the film portrays Andrew onstage in a festival concert with Fletcher's band with an extravagant drum performance that culminates the picture, almost leaving us breathless but satisfied as the inner Buddy Rich within has finally awoken from its sleep and torn itself away from hiding deep within the yearning soul of this former mediocre jazz musician now a dynamic drum soloist extraordinaire. We can only stand and cheer as the end credits roll.
Anyone can be forgiven why Andrew does not just up and quit from not putting up with Fletcher's relentless verbal abuse and demanding perfectionism. However we can sense an invisible drive inside Andrew that ultimately pushes him to reject defeat, blot out Fletcher's rants and plunge headfirst into the daring and dangerous world of self-infliction by pounding the drum skins as if his very life were at stake; as if Fletcher were watching his every beat as a hungry predator would a small animal, looking for a chance to chew him up and spit out his bones at any given moment with one false note or tempo. Astounding, electrifying, unnerving and exhilarating, the heart will indeed pound with every drum beat struck and every bead of sweat and blood that falls in slow-motion. Here, the worlds of 'Fame' and 'Full Metal Jacket' collide into a dark, daring and dizzying jazz jive that you're more certain than likely to need a defibrillator for when the last note is played and the screen turns black. Bold and brash, engaging and extreme, 'Whiplash' is a fiery and fierce jazz movie truly undaunted and unafraid in beating to its own drum.