Excellent Music Filled Drama

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2017)

With the rise of his newest film "La La Land" I ventured back to what got Damien Chazelle's name in lights. "Whiplash," or Chazelle's starring entrance film that won fifty plus awards nationally and internationally, is an amazing film incorporating both music and drama to create an incredible story of one's rise to fame. As an aspiring drummer, Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) lands himself in the hot seat. Neyman was put there only by world renowned conductor and musical connoisseur Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) at an elite east coast musical conservatory. After being placed in Fletcher's top notch jazz band, Neyman finds himself constantly at war between being the best drummer and maintaining his sanity. In the dark with an absent mother and a poet for a father, Neyman wants to make a name for himself and his unforeseen talents. From the dialogue of Chazelle, there is an uneven yet critical balance of intense heart wrench with additions of disgusting humor that particularly adds to J.K. Simmons character. The plot, set in an almost unoriginal light, is captured with a dynamic new relationship between teacher and student. Broadcast in New York at a prestigious music driven school seems to be a common theme among rising millennials. Chazelle took this cliché and added in a layer of depth with a fight between choosing one's mental health or being a household name at the hands of one professor. In a word, Simmons can be described as fearless. The portrayal of an elite die-hard conductor skyrocketed with his bipolar personality tendencies. One minute you are awed and hypnotized by his presence and confidence and next you are wanting to run for cover from the cymbal he is trying to hurl at your head for rushing the tempo. The capabilities shown by Simmons to entice beautiful musicians to want to be in his band, to the blood of the failures he marks on the walls of the conservatory, want to make you pick up a set of sticks while also playing away your mental stability. A standing ovation and round of applause to Simmons and a well-deserved win for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In a wild change of events, our hero seems to be a bit in the shadows, or should I say overshadowed, by his supporting cast. Teller seems a bit shy or timid when delivering a character who is supposedly not going to be scared by one egotistical, Satanist conductor. We experience the pain and suffering Neyman goes through when constantly beaten down or trying to prove himself by blistering up his hands and cutting off relationships with his loved ones. However, we miss the cutthroat shocking change in the end by a musical shift in power between the conductor and the musician in his last performance shown on screen. As an impeccable duo (in a hero-villain type of way) Teller and Simmons create an entirely vibrant drama that makes you feel alive. The work of Chazelle simply cannot be undermined with hit after hit in his musically combative story line and unbelievable emotional content.