Has some small but big plot holes, but its amazing acting, directing, editing and writing make Whiplash a great film

Rating: Null/10 (25 January 2015)

Whiplash stars Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons, it is directed and written by Damien Chazelle, and it is awesome, seriously, just awesome. It is a dazzling, electrifying and original movie.
Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is a drummer who aspires to be the best, like Buddy Rich. He is a part of an elite music school and one day, conductor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) accepts him into his band as the substitute drummer. From the first rehearsal it is apparent that Fletcher is the king dick of the galaxies. He is abusive of his students, assaulting them in every way possible. While practicing the song "Whiplash", he hurls a chair at Andrew for being on his tempo, and begins to slap and berate him for rushing and dragging the band. Fletcher continues to push Andrew to his limits, and in order to earn his approval, he starts practicing all the time.
These two provide amazing acting, despite Simmons being the one with the most award buzz, I thought they were equally stunning, with incredible chemistry to boot. Teller brings the drive to be the best to the screen, creating an engaging and relatable character, who eventually becomes possessed with his ambition, his scenes after being under Fletcher's tutelage does to him as a person, it makes him start to lose his mind, it is very, very interesting, he provides fierce acting. It's as if Teller is an unstoppable force, and Simmons is an immovable object. Another awesome thing is that he did most of the drumming himself, that's already worth a lot of praise right there. His exhaustion is real, and you feel the work he put in the role, it all pays off, culminating in incredible acting. And Simmons, he is astounding. What a performance! He is so ferocious and ruthless, and his insults are great(and I hate to admit it, but they're pretty hilarious), the actor delivered them with such anger, just amazing. Such a dick of a character, just the fact that an actor can get so into character to the point of you wanting to beat him up so bad, is something to behold. The other supporting actors, Paul Reiser (his dad) and Melissa Benoist (his girlfriend) are very good as well, both their relationships with Andrew are very interesting to see.
The movie is very well written as well, it has as good characterization for the two leads as it gets. Both of the characters have such intriguing character arks, with amazing development by the time the movie ends. Andrew of course is very humane and real, and since joining Schaffer he starts to become overwhelmed by his ambition to be the best, and starts to become disturbed, (like what he did with his girlfriend), and the character gets even more interesting from there. While Fletcher is usually this feral man, who has a terrible influence on his students, as can be seen from what he does to Andrew. He could have been pretty much a cartoon, but the script and Simmons' performance gave him such depth, showing some scenes where he truly does not seem like an entirely bad person, and while you can still see his reason for being a total dick to his students, of course it's not justified, but I liked how he had very strong views on his methods. And the butting of heads between these two? Such an amazing and interesting conflict, also best chemistry I've seen, these two did such an incredible job. And now for my only flaws with the film, and unfortunately they are big, it's the film's complete lack of realism in key plot points, for example, how the hell has Fletcher not lost his job? And this is after Andrew's first rehearsal, hell, before the movie even began, I mean, if you hurl a chair at a FIRST time student because he wasn't "on your tempo", well you can't expect to not be sued for everything you have, this is 2014 New York, no way in hell he would walk away scot-free. Also, there is another scene where Andrew goes to play in a concert, and something happens with him, something big, but no one reacts to it (hard not spoiling it). Those two problems drilled a gigantic hole in the plot, and they took me out of the film a bit. The rest of the movie was great however, nothing else wrong.
Chazelle of course directed this film as well, and there's another praiseworthy achievement, each image is very well filmed, I specifically loved the beginning shots, which showcase Andrew walking around the beautiful nighttime NY, with each shot focusing on the buildings then scooting down to him, with some groovy and smooth jazz playing in the soundtrack, which is awesome! Full of fun and electric tunes, while also including some quite sad and dramatic songs. And the final act, that was some of the best minutes in a movie last year, everything in it is simply put, specially the music direction, and editing, Chazelle does a magnificent job, filming impossible shots right at the mouth of each trumpet and trombone, and the editing, my god it's so good! Tom Cross does an incredible job here, with tightly edited closeups of each instrument, changing the viewpoint with each beat and giving each instrument its time to shine. The sound is incredible as well, to make all those instruments sound so perfectly while all playing at the same time is a great feat. The ending of the film is really awesome, and I believe everyone will like it a lot.
Despite its small but big flaws, Whiplash is a really awesome movie, one that reaches out to any type of moviegoer, it is beautifully acted, directed and edited, and has an amazing script with a strong story that is electric, emotional and astounding all at the same time.