Favorite Movie of 2014!

Rating: 10/10 (3 March 2015)

Whiplash, a powerful and emotional film for first time director Damien Chazelle. Whiplash is about a boy named Andrew (played by Miles Teller), who enrolls as a freshman at Shaffer college aspiring to be the next greatest jazz drummer. Andrews journey to greatness is hindered by a non supportive family other than his father, personal internal conflicts, and most of all his hard knock jazz teacher/mentor Fletcher (played by J.K. Simmons). The film goes through Andrews freshman year at Shaffer and his battles trying to impress Fletcher to allow him to stay on his jazz band.
This movie had me feeling all sorts of ways. Personally, it hit home with how Andrews family never really supported him with his dream that he was very skilled at. His aunt and uncle focused more on their sons who played football when in reality he was much better than them and was most likely going to be more successful. I think a lot of people can relate to that theme that some passions of yours your not going to get many supporters on and your going to have to power through it your self through all adversity. This movie also has the motivational factor of an inspirational sports movie like Rudy. Seeing the scenes when Andrew is just pushing himself to his physical and mental limit just to make it in the industry are the best scenes in the movie. Watching him play the same beat over and over while his hands are bleeding just to get the pace right and impress fletcher motivated me to go and do something with my life and put as much effort into it as Andrew did. He showed that if you put your mind into a passion you can make it even in such a hard industry of being a drummer as cliché as that sounds.
Going into this movie I expected a performance from Miles Teller that would be rather forgetful. The only other movies I had seen him in were 3 lackluster performances in equally not so good movies Divergent, Project X, and the Footloose remake. His roles in all 3 had been small parts, but he still didn't steal the screen like some actors with small roles do, so he had some big shoes to fill. After watching this I was blown away by his performance. At some points throughout it almost felt like he wasn't acting there was just so much raw emotion coming from him. The other thing that astonished me was his ability to actually play the drums. If that kid hadn't become an actor he could have easily pursued a career in music he's very talented. If he has another good performance in the upcoming fantastic four movie I could see big things from him.
Now if you've seen the movie or even watched the Oscars, you know where the big chunk of my rave for this movie will be. He won best supporting actor in a performance I hadn't seen from a supporting actor in a long time and his name is J.K. Simmons. This guy just kills it in this movie. Whoever came up with the idea of casting him is a genius. The way his character physically and mentally torments his whole class and the way J.K. puts all of the emotion to show just how bad of a man Fletcher is is astounding. His performance is both hilarious with his creative and crude insults and terrifying at the same time with how how intimidating and scary Fletcher is. Watching him made me think back to the drill sergeant in full metal jacket, probably the best part of that film. Except the drill sergeant only gets 15-20 minutes of screen time when Simmons get a full hour and a half to show off his skills. If you had to pinpoint one part of this movie that makes it stand out as one of the best 2014 had to offer J.K. Simmons is your reason.
To wrap up, this movie is my personal favorite of 2014 even though birdman is a close second. This movie thrives on individual performances but also has great writing, editing, and a stellar soundtrack, all of which were nominated for Oscars. The movies impact on the viewer is one you rarely find. I watched it a week ago and it still is on my mind today. Whiplash is definitely re watchable and one I will most likely be picking up on blu ray. This movie is on par with some of the best music movies like Almost Famous and This is Spinal Tap.
My overall rating for this movie a 10/10