100 minutes of torture

Rating: 1/10 (7 February 2015)

There's only one thing worse than a ludicrous, shallow, artificial movie, and that's a ludicrous, shallow, artificial movie that everybody seems to adore.
Whiplash wants to be about the love of great art, but is actually about the hate of great art. It has JK Simmons - a brilliant actor - playing a disgraceful character, stitched together from completely unrealistic, inconsistent motivations and actions, only conceived to bludgeon the viewer into thinking we're watching something profound. It casually tosses in assault, depression and suicide in a way that only a clueless, opportunistic director could. It has a big finale that would be powerful if only it made some sense for the main characters involved - it doesn't.
Even worse, the finale leaves us with this unmistakable message: sadistic leadership is the way to greatness. Don't take your kids to see this.