music and obsession

Rating: 10/10 (10 August 2015)

J. K. Simmons has played a number of stern, demanding characters during his career. But he gets the role of a lifetime in Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash". He plays the brutal instructor of a college jazz band. This man resorts to methods that lapse into abuse. In showing these overly aggressive teaching methods, the movie poses the question of what is the right thing to do when encouraging students to succeed. Brutality is understood to be the only choice when readying cadets for a war zone, but when teaching college students how to play jazz? Simmons won a well deserved Oscar for his performance. Although it was for Best Supporting Actor, the movie belongs to him. Miles Teller's performance as the student is truly secondary to Simmons. His character is one of only a few movie characters in history who made me feel as if I was walking on eggshells.