Hard to sit through, but though provoking

Rating: 9/10 (24 May 2015)

Whiplash is rightly named. Just like a piece of music, a film has many components that must come together for it to work. You can't have a film without actors, without a script, or without a director. For this particular piece of music, all you need is a drummer and a teacher who will do anything to for a successful performance. I believe that is what Damien Chazelle has done here. He has pushed his actors as well as his audience to their limits and then some. The question this movie asks is: how far is too far? And the beautiful thing is that it never answers it and that was precisely Damien Chazelle's intention when he wrote the ending. We, as the audience, must decide for ourselves. I didn't enjoy sitting through this movie, but that doesn't make it bad. It made me think and ultimately it did what it set out to do. For that, I applaud it.