I held reservations--daring to see this film. I'd seen trailers; and it looked to me as if it was a cruel, unrelenting fight between a guy who was coaching talented musicians how to endure his mean driving spirit to reach greatness. 'Who wants to suffer that?' I asked parts of myself. But having read and heard how great WHIPLASH was, I made up my mind I'd check it out. It was pretty much as I thought, but the execution-- the script, the acting and the directing-- were colossal. Starting with Damien Chazelle, the director--as well as the writer-- here rolls a film that demonstrates the whole idea of making greatness in one's students out of maniacal dedication to an excellence that the teacher holds.
The word "education" used to mean (and maybe still does) to creative teachers: the drawing out of one's excellence in order to achieve the best performance that the student has been endowed with from his birth. It is not the stuffing of all sorts of rules and standards that the teacher miss/thinks is critical for one's success.
In this film we watch the jazz-conductor-teacher, Terence Fletcher--played by J.K. Simmons-- monstrously seethe in demanding that all who play for him do as he says - as if his idea of greatness is writ in stone by players of bygone years. The primary victim of his ceaseless screeching is one, Andrew Neiman, played by Miles Teller. He's nineteen and has just arrived at the top music school in the land.
The film starts when we see new Andrew drumming in a spare room as tyrant Fletcher happens to pass nearby and catch Andrew's sound. Andrew aspires to be the best drummer in the whole world; and it's possible that tyrant Fletcher senses that goal. He barges in and asks why Andrew has now stopped. When Andrew starts, he asks, "Who told you to start?" This guy is as mean as dirt but so dedicated to searching for the next great musician that he sucks Andrew's will into his own and gets Andrew to only want to please.
Fletcher happens to be the top teacher at this top school; and the band that he molds is the top band around. He has won all sorts of awards- or at least his bands have-and now he gives Andrew a chance to try and earn the first chair in the drummer's spot. Now try to picture this: when Andrew gets to practice, he gives Andrew that spot to try out in, and in so doing, discards the drummer that has been in that first chair. Yet, immediately, he starts yelling at Andrew and reducing him to tears.
This is the tenor of the entire film. But, he has met his match in Andrew, who refuses to give up. This is supposed to be what does happen-according to what Fletcher believes: the more sh*t that's piled on a guy who wants to become great, the more that guy digs in and does become great. Does that happen?
You really need to see this film to find that out. I recommend it because it will get you to maybe find out what greatness is and whether what Fletcher desires is not what greatness is. In Andrew's quest for it, he breaks off with Nicole, a girl he had started dating- and seemed to really like... Why? He felt-inasmuch as she wasn't as directed in her life as he was in his-- she might just slow him down. Nicole is played well by Melissa Benoist; and she has her own life to get on with, which she's able to tell Andrew of later.
The marvelous thing about this film is how the tempo of the acting is knit right into the scores of the jazz. Justin Hurwitz takes care of that part very well. I hardly think much about the editing of a film, but I couldn't help but rave the way this one's edited. We are talking about the kind of enfolding of scenes in a staccato way. Tom Cross is my man here. There's not a second lost. And there's tension that you would not expect in a film that has to do with music.
Besides the three actors mentioned above, Andrew has a dad, whose role is meant to ground him firmly in some reality. But Andrew thinks of him as a failure, because he is a teacher who doesn't represent the sort of success and fame that Andrew is out to get at any price. Paul Reiser fills that part well. But the really stellar achievements are shown by antagonists Terrence Fletcher and Miles Teller. I don't know if I've seen bolder acting than these two the whole year.
I hate to talk about Academy Awards-except to say: if you happen to watch the Awards Show, and you hear WHIPLASH is announced, I don't want you to say, "Darn! I should have seen it!" It's that good, believe me. I do want to say, however, that just because the film is skewed in a way that is not healthy (in my thinking) doesn't detract from the power of showing two guys battling a mindset that both believe is truth's secret. (Pain IS a nourishment, but love's got to be there as well.)
If you haven't guessed yet what my grade is for this movie, it's an unblemished EIGHT.
What My Grade Grants:
8.) "About as good as it could get."
7.) "Lacking that bit of excellence."
6.) "Somehow it just didn't work well."
5.) "I have to feel bad about it."
4.) "All that work and nothing to show."
Creator of "The Wizard's Outrageous Scheme For Stopping Smoking" Humbler Acts reports one film every week as relaxation from his speaking and writing on stopping smoking through dream use and Seven Forces. He's American, English-educated, residing in St. Louis, MO (USA). He can be reached: humbleracts@aol.com or telephone: 314-574-7681.
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