masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2015)

OK, so this is how I should start: Whiplash is not a film for students; not for MY students, anyway; it is restricted R because of the bad language and violence; I'm not the best example to promote restrictions, since I took my then 13 years old son to see Dredd – which was interdicted to minors – and we almost got kicked out of the cinema. Finally, since I demanded I was a teacher of a respected school and therefore knew what I was doing, I convinced the security at the cinema to let us in – not that they had any other choice, with me playing the controlling mother and teacher and with my son carrying bags of popcorn and cans of cola and looking like a whiny. Would I do it again? No way – it was not very flattering for me. Would I still let my 13 year-old watch a very violent film? Of course I would – it was a good film and we enjoyed ourselves a lot – it was what we call quality time with your children. Now back to business – I was talking about the best film of the year in my humble opinion – Whiplash. I know I'm not a professional film critic, although I can brag about me watching more than 10 films a month, which would make me a very good film fan. Is it enough to make me a film critic? Hardly. Is it good enough to make me worthy of an opinion? I think it is. I wanted to watch Whiplash first of all because it had a number of nominations for awards, and second of all because of my youth years when I used to listen to a lot of jazz and even used to go to jazz concerts and festivals (I worked for a local newspaper back then and I think my highest achievement was an interview with Harry Tavitian – a famous Romanian jazz pianist and singer).
But Whiplash is not about jazz – not entirely, anyway. What is it about then? How far would you go for perfection? How do you draw the line between a strict, demanding teacher, who wants the best from their students, and a torturer, sadistic psycho? I couldn't. I have to say I was fascinated by the character of Terrence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons' performance is Oscar granted). He is a monster, but one whose ultimate aim is getting the impossible out of his students. Andrew (Miles Teller) is his victim – an innocent drum player whose dream is to become more than his father – a failed writer, but his passion to achieve perfection quickly drives him to obsession, as his demanding instructor keeps on pushing him to the edge of both his ability and his sanity. I remember feeling the need to listen again and again to genius dialogues – the most quoted one being There are no two words in the English language more harmful than, 'Good job.' Ultimately Whiplash is a story about the cost of greatness and how far would one go to achieve it. Whiplash is a thriller as much as a meaningful piece of storytelling. It is a masterpiece. I saw myself as Fletcher, a demanding teacher who wants more than possible from his students, and as Andrew, a student who would sacrifice everything, from his romantic life to his safety, for the sake of art. It is a film that made me wonder after so many years of living in a sordid, materialistic, sick and unhealthy society: What ever happened with art for art's sake?