A GREAT Film; Simmons Deserved Every Award He Received

Rating: 9/10 (22 December 2015)

WHIPLASH is an insane rush. Who would've thought a movie about jazz drumming could be so intense? Or good? Seriously, just go scroll through the list of awards this movie took home. Jazz, normally a subject I would make an effort to avoid, is the heart of this film about young Andrew Neimann (Miles Teller) who is accepted into the Schaffer Conservatory's award-winning jazz band as an aspiring drummer. Andrew loves jazz drumming, spending 100% of his waking hours listening to it, talking about it, or practicing it (except the odd occasion when he's not taking in a classic movie with his dad). Sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime, yeah? Enter Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). Fletcher is the head of the band and a jazz aficionado, and he does not accept anything short of perfection. His methods are unconventional and, well, downright abusive. He often recites a tale of Jo Jones throwing a cymbal at Charlie Parker's head and how it supposedly inspired Parker to become the legendary drummer he's known as, and he has apparently based his entire teaching method on that one moment. If Andrew wants the opportunities being in Fletcher's band will afford him, he is going to have to push himself to the limit and beyond. But that sort of dedication doesn't come without a price and the strain of it all becomes overwhelming. Does Andrew have the drive needed to become the jazz drumming legend he aspires to be? Or will he fold under the pressure?
Only two things matter in WHIPLASH: characters (well, two of them anyway) and drums. Story is a distant third. As amazing a film as WHIPLASH is, it's not for the creative plot. There are very few risks taken story-wise and there are minor subplots that are picked up and dropped almost immediately. Melissa Benoist is lovely as Nicole, a movie theater concessions employee on whom Andrew has a crush, but as soon as he gets the nerve to ask her out he's breaking up with her a scene later. Her entire role in the film was to demonstrate how Andrew is willing to sacrifice parts of his life to ensure his focus remains on drumming and only drumming. There's a slight callback to it later with a bit of "too little, too late" closure, but that's all it amounts to. No, this movie succeeds because of Teller and Simmons. I primarily know Miles Teller as being the guy I'm always confusing with Shia LaBeouf (could've sworn he was the sidekick in CONSTANTINE) and Sam Huntington (could've sworn he was the sidekick in Dylan DOG: DEAD OF NIGHT) but, apparently, I've only ever actually seen him in PROJECT X (which I don't remember) and now the 2015 reboot of FANTASTIC FOUR. So he couldn't have picked a better film to break out of obscurity with. He's pretty awesome here. His character, Andrew, goes through a distinct change over the course of the film. Well, that's not accurate. More of an awakening. I'm almost certain the Andrew we see at the end of the film as within him the entire time, and it just took Fletcher to drag it out of him.
And speaking of Fletcher, J.K. Simmons totally owns this role. It's no surprise the man won a boatload of awards for this performance. The man's intense. We've seen a taste of it with his hot-tempered J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man series but here he's given a fully realized character to sink his teeth into. Fletcher is abusive, no argument there, but he's got a personal ambition he's striving for. Every insult flung, every chair tossedhe's doing it for a reason. Jazz is his life. His entire world, really. He is on a personal mission to find the next era of great jazz musicians; he just has a less-than- legal means of weeding out the losers. Teller is fantastic in the film but Simmons steals every scene he's present in. His character is just incredibly interesting. The big climax of the film between Andrew and Fletcher, of which I'll spare any details here, is one of the most intense sequences I've seen all year. And I can barely stand jazz. Just as FOXCATCHER did with wrestling, WHIPLASH takes a subject about with I care almost nothing and turns it into an amazing film. The movie plows along at a breakneck pace and I'm engaged from beginning to end; by the time the end credits roll and we're let loose, you'll almost feel whiplash yourself. Big recommend from me.