100 minutes of pure adrenaline, energy and passion.
95/100
Directed By: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Miles Teller, JK Simmons, Paul Reiser
Favourite Quote:
“I'd rather die drunk, broke at 34 and have people at a dinner table talk about me than live to be rich and sober at 90 and nobody remembered who I was.”
Favourite Shot:
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is unyielding. Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash induces extreme panic. Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash makes you wish you were extremely good at something. Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash makes you relieved you're not extremely good at something. Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is exciting. Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is heartbreaking. Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is a masterpiece.
In Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) dreams of being the greatest jazz drummer to ever live and is enrolled in one of the best music schools in America. Here he is mentored by Terrence Fletcher (JK Simmons), who uses unconventional and inhumane teaching techniques to push Andrew beyond his imagined limits.
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is less concerned with plot and more about this constant conflict of ideologies. Fletcher believes that you must spend every waking moment in pursuit of your dreams because if you don’t you will never realise them. While the more common ideology encourages us to pursue our dreams but also to balance our lives out with other things such as relaxation, hobbies and relationships.
The insane tension and anxiety of Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is set up in an early, seemingly unimportant sequence where Fletcher gives Andrew a chance to be in his prestigious band and tells him to be in class the next day at 6am.
The next day, Andrew misses his alarm, wakes up after 6am and quickly rushes to the meeting spot only to find that nobody is there, because the meeting actually begins at 9am.
Immediately we know that Andrew is liable to mess things up, we are now in constant fear of him destroying his chance, and we also know that Fletcher is a manipulator and a liar, we are now in constant fear of his unpredictability.
Fletcher tortures Andrew in Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash in numerous ways. He throws objects at him, forces him to play until he bleeds, tells others they are better than him when they obviously aren’t, and continually embarrasses him in front of the other members of the band.
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash features one insanely suspenseful scene after another and you can’t help but hope that Andrew will pull through and succeed so that he, and us, are free of this breathless lifestyle.
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is less concerned with plot and more about this constant conflict of ideologies. Fletcher believes that you must spend every waking moment in pursuit of your dreams because if you don’t you will never realise them. While the more common ideology encourages us to pursue our dreams but also to balance our lives out with other things such as relaxation, hobbies and relationships.
In Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, Andrew has fully immersed himself in Fletcher’s world by cutting off everything else in his life except for his dream and it’s obviously taking a massive toll on him.
There is a perfect scene in Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash where Andrew is running late for his performance with Fletcher’s band because his bus has broken down. He hires a car but leaves his drumsticks at the hiring place and speedily returns to get them. While on the way back, he calls someone from the band and the band member tells him that they are about to go on stage. Andrew yells at him to wait and, as he is yelling in anger, a car T bones him.
We think that it may all be over. Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash finally finished. But we see Andrew realise what has happened, we see him slowly get out of the car with blood all over him, and then we see him stumble his way to the stage. He sits down at the drum set and begins playing. Blood sprays over the kit, he continually drops his drumsticks and the performance is stopped. Andrew sits there moaning in pain and Fletcher walks over and tells him: “You’re done.”
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash finally finished? We can now breathe.
But Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is not over yet. You hope the whole runtime that Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is going to end. And time and time again Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash doesn’t end.
In the final scene of Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, music roars as bodies and minds move at obscene speeds, as shots of facial expressions explain whole pages of dialogue in seconds, as instruments are beaten and played with passion and energy and colour and fire.
And we are given a final look between Andrew and Fletcher which opens up so many different meanings and futures and ideas and you want them to be explored so badly. And then the music stops. Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is over just at the moment you finally didn’t want Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash to end.
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