Feverish and Original, Whiplash excels

Rating: 7/10 (20 April 2015)

Whiplash is an ingenious clash between jazz and psychology, bringing with it a resounding tale of terror, music, and insanity that resolves itself so perfectly, viewers will be truly speechless at the end of the film. The film depicts Andrew Neiman, an ambitious young drumming student at the fictional, yet very prestigious Schaffer Conservatory. A teacher at the school, Terrence Fletcher, finds Andrew and adopts him into his band where he proceeds to harass, verbally as well as physically abuse and push Andrew to his absolute limit. The dynamic of the two characters is riveting: A young, yet highly ambitious (he dumps Melissa Benoist to pursue drumming. I mean, you have to be ambitious to dump Melissa Benoist) student attempting to impress his seemingly unimpressible teacher who pushes and pushes Andrew inevitably to his breaking point. Damien Chazelle crafts Andrew's practice scenes exquisitely, often tuning cuts between shots to drum beats hammered out by the sweaty, bloody, and often exhausted Andrew as he wrenches his face and pounds away (once even punching a hole in snare drum out of sheer frustration) at a dilapidated old drum set. Andrew becomes cold, reckless, and violent in his pursuit of "greatness" while all this is encouraged by his teacher, pulling him deeper and deeper into an inescapable, sinister, and hopeless rabbit hole.
I believe that the only issue with this film is its occasional lack of loyalty to a certain subject. At certain times it seems to jump between the central theme of jazz and the central theme of ambition, creating a sort of cinematic identity crisis. However, this is quite easy to overlook.
But still. Watch it for the jazz. Watch it for the excellent performances from Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. Watch it for the unrelenting depiction of human ambition and what it can lead one into. Or watch it for Melissa Benoist.
Whiplash is truly an excellent film with a mind-blowingly awesome ending.