I like to teach the world to play

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2015)

Good Job are the key words for Whiplash. J K Simmons psycho jazz teacher, Terence Fletcher recounts a story about Charlie Parker and how doing a good job was not enough to uncover a genius. There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job' according to Fletcher.
The trouble is Fletcher would not recognise a genius if it crashed into him head on. Simmons creates a monster of a teacher which to be truthful is not unknown in coaching circles in sports and the arts. However a good educator he is not, something his prestigious school seems not to have noticed.
Miles Teller plays Andrew Neiman the put upon jazz drummer in the Shaffer Conservatory in New York. Eager to impress Fletcher and confounded that nothing he does can satisfy Fletcher. Neiman literally is driven to the edge.
However there is only ever going to be one winner, Fletcher does not give an inch. J K Simmons won a best supporting actor Oscar for his mean and blustering performance. There was very little shade to his performance and even in his subdued moments his character was calculating. A man with little ethical core.
It is left to Teller to bring soul to the film. The young student whose zest and passion for learning and improvement is fast fading away as he becomes the victim of intense bullying.
The film never addresses the bullying by Fletcher. There is a sub plot about this later in the movie but notice how the other students just stay quiet and let the abuse unfurl. Given that cooperating with each other in music is so important, these students hardly talked to each other. They were reaaly a dysfunctional band who certainly did not give a shoulder to lean on which came across as unrealistic. Surely the students would mutter to each other in the canteen as to how horrible Fletcher was?
As to the competition which causes Neiman problems as he has trouble getting there. Again you would have thought the Conservatory would had provided transport rather than rely on the students to make their own way.
I did not think the film succeeded. The performances were intense but the screenplay had problems because the I never could buy into the band members as functioning students.