Remember that teacher you where terrified of that you used to love?

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2015)

When I first saw the trailer of Whiplash and all the praising reviews it was getting, I knew we were onto something really good and something different. I'm even more so excited when it's an awards season movie that was written, directed and based on a short film of the same name and concept by a fresh young director (Damien Chazelle, 29 yrs old when he was directing it), one of the youngest best picture nominee director for a matter of fact, which shows that he's a keeper with loads of potential and that this movie is very personal to him so he won't let the Producer's Hollywood edit process cliché ruin his vision.
What makes Whiplash stand out as such a breath of fresh air is that it could've been one of those 'loosely based on a crazy true story of week' Oscar bait movie with the protagonist, antagonist, rise, fall and rise with the Hollywood moral driven happy ending, but there was no true protagonist, antagonist and happy or sad ending, it was all contextual to the viewer's opinion but that's not what mattered to me in Whiplash, it was all about: will Andrew (Miles Teller) perform one of the greatest percussion performance of all time and be the next great Buddy Rich no matter how much sweat, tears and blood he must shed but that was the whole visual pleasure of this movie: to see how far and how much pain a person will go through to achieve what he wants.
The beginning of the movie does set up Andrew as the good guy who just want to achieve his dream and Fletcher (J.K. Simons) as the bad guy who is nothing more than a rude and sadistic music teacher who lashes out on his students probably out of bitterness for ending as a music teacher instead of the greatest Jazz maestro in the world, but you later on loose sympathy for Andrew as you realize that his pursue for his dream turns him into an anti-social and a snob who will cut off a bond for a girl who cares for him and likes him in exchange for his masochistic journey to be the greatest drummer in the world. And that's where you realize Fletcher isn't a sadist just to be a sadist; he's a harsh teacher who believes and is still searching for the greatest drummer in the world which you know he sees in Andrew. Fletcher knows Andrew is ready to give everything up and take everything in and he will push him to the limit which achieves in a way the happiest movie ending as both of these painful and tragic individuals have achieved their ultimate goal.