Whiplash - Movie Review

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2020)

Whiplash came out back in 2014 and surprised everyone with how powerful it was, and how incredible the performances were. J.K Simmons is a veteran actor, but I don't think I have ever seen him better. The performance he gave as Fletcher was absolutely mesmerising, and fully deserving of the Oscar. This was also the best performance that Miles Teller has ever given us, and the dynamic between the two leads was captivating and heartbreaking at times.
The movie is also extremely relatable. At the centre of the narrative is a man who has a dream, and he will do anything to achieve it, even shut off the people that are closest to him. The insurmountable pressure that Fletcher put on Andrew was fascinating to watch, but Damien Chazelle's directing also made us feel sorry for Andrew.
The script was darkly comedic, and contains some of the most quotable lines of the past few years. Most of them were offensive slurs from the mouth of Fletcher, but this turned him into a realistic villain. Everything in the film builds to an incredibly powerful finalé, and one of the best that I have ever seen in cinematic history.
Whiplash is a masterpiece, and it is definitely in my top 25 films of all time. It then came as a great surprise when this film was surpassed two years later by La La Land, which is in my top 10 of all time. They are both equally as well-made as one another, but I just have slightly more of a connection to his follow-up film. That is not a criticism towards Whiplash at all though, because it is a movie I have watched countless times and will continue to watch for years to come.
SCORE: 100%