There’s one main reason to see Damien Chazelle’s (Grand Piano) Whiplash. Despite its outstanding 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s not a movie that offers anything original. It’s a good film, but not a great movie. However, it does deliver one of the finest (if not the finest) supporting performances of the year. We’ve seen this story in books, on television, and the big screen hundreds of times. The content changes, but the story stays the same…a young person trying to do whatever they can to win the approval of someone they are trying to impress. In this case, the young person is Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller – The Spectacular Now, 21 and Over), a first-year drumming major at New York’s Shaffer Conservatory of Music, one of the top music prep school’s in the country. And the person he is unsuccessfully trying to win over is Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons – television’s Oz, television’s The Closer), the school’s most well-known teacher and maestro of the school’s top jazz ensemble. It’s well-known that if you can succeed in Fletcher’s group, you’ve got the potential for a great career as a musician. The movie is good.
Teller, who I think is highly overrated, is good. But Simmons is phenomenal. For those who watched HBO’s Oz, imagine his viscous Vern Schillinger character minus the witty comedy. Simmons’s Fletcher is a ruthless man in his pursuit of making his band not just great but flawless. It’s one of the best supporting performances of the year, and I think it’s a lock that Simmons will be rewarded with his first Academy Award nomination.
Though he is just a first-year student, being a famous jazz drummer is the only thing Andrew has ever wanted. Unfortunately, his love for music has hindered him in other areas of life. He’s the first to admit that he has no friends. He’s awkward around girls. He believes that you are a purposeless person if you don’t have your life figured out and aim toward something. His father, Jim (Paul Reiser – Beverly Hills Cop, The Story of Us), is a failed writer turned high school teacher. This is something that fuels Andrew to excel at his craft even more. After Fletcher spots him, Andrew becomes obsessed with getting into that man’s ensemble. All know at Shaffer that Fletcher is a man who does what he wants when he wants. He follows his own set of rules. It’s his way or the highway. You can insert whatever cliche you want, but it all comes down to one thing. You have one chance with Fletcher. If you blow it, you will not be in his band. And if you don’t make his band, you might as well not be at Shaffer.
Fletcher is similar to another character this year who likewise will earn some critical acclaim. Steve Carell’s role as John du Pont in Foxcatcher will likely earn him a Best Actor Academy Award nomination (and possibly a win). While Foxcatcher revolves equally around Carell and Channing Tatum’s Mark, Whiplash is focused entirely on Andrew. In my opinion, Simmons is much more an antagonist to Teller than Carell is to Tatum. Whereas Carell’s du Pont is just awkward to watch on screen, Simmons is just scary. There is no hidden agenda with Fletcher. He’s a callous, calculated man who uses mental and physical torture as a form of power and mind control. He’s never satisfied, and it quickly becomes apparent to all of us in the audience that there is absolutely nothing any of his band members can do to make him content. It’s evident to all of the band members that no matter what they do, he thinks they suck. It often only takes one or two notes for him to become dissatisfied. But it’s not that these young men lack the courage to stand up to Fletcher. Instead, they know it’s career suicide to challenge the band’s maestro.
Now while Fletcher is a thoroughly unlikable character, he is faithful to his reasons why. He wants to push his students to be great. He wants them to strive for and reach their potential even if they don’t know what they are capable of. But do the ends justify the means? I think most of us will say no way. He pushes his students to where they give their blood, sweat, and tears for him. He forces them to alter their lives to provide the man with what they think he wants (even when they aren’t always certain that they know what that is). He mercilessly tortures his dutiful students, both emotionally and physically. Fletcher often takes one or two notes (less than one second of playing) to flip out and demean the musician. Does he want to break them, or is there something more than meets the eye? Are there any redeemable qualities in this man who seems so despicable? Is there any reason at all for us to try to want to like him? That is for you to see if you decide to see this movie.
Whiplash is a very good film. It’s just not a great one because it isn’t original enough. I would recommend watching it on Netflix or Redbox. I don’t think it’s worth seeing in the theater. You’d be fine if you skipped it altogether, although, as I mentioned, it’s worth it just for the performance of Simmons. He is absolutely terrifying. He’s the story. Miles Teller holds his own, but this is Simmons’s shining moment. I’m not even going to mention the dating situation between Andrew and Nicole (Melissa Benoist – television’s Glee). It felt like her character was only brought into this movie so that she could be taken away in Andrew’s pursuit of perfection and obsession with eliminating everything else to impress Fletcher. Her character was wasted. Reiser was almost wasted as Andrew’s father too. The best “other” character in this movie was the band. Their silence when one of their own was getting chewed out was sometimes deafening. There wasn’t a soul willing to stand up for their classmate when he was getting destroyed by Fletcher.
Plot 7.5/10 (been there, done that, got the t-shirt…last month actually with Foxcatcher)
Character Development 8/10 (the development was weak. Fletcher didn’t change, and I wasn’t satisfied with the progression of Andrew’s character for the last third of the film)
Character Chemistry 9.5/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 8.5/10
Cinematography 8.5/10
Sound 10/10 (a highlight of the film)
Hook and Reel 9.5/10 (though the story has been played out, the acting is excellent, and it never feels boring. It’s a taut drama)
Universal Relevance 8/10 (sure, but this movie is not original enough for me to earn higher than an 8)
87%
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