Review of Whiplash (2014) by Richard B — 10 Nov 2015

Back Where He Belongs?

JK Simmons' hommage to Lou Gosset Jr in Officer and a Gentleman is even more psychopathic than in that 1981 piece of cheese. Damien Chazelle has clearly studied that film and lifts large slices of it, transferring elite military service to elite drumming (!). Miles Teller plays Richard Gere (not actually) as the aspiring Buddy Rich, put is more than put through the wringer by Fletcher (the insane, abusive perfectionist jazz teacher). The music is good, there is a vague Deborah Winger role (abandoned in pursuit of excellence), and Telller's father is no Robert Loggia, but a high school English teacher.

The climax is incredible - in the original use of the word - not credible. In the last 30 minutes, the perfectionist, no longer a teacher, accidentally lures Teller into a professional concert in Carnegie Hall, only to pull the rug out under him, depriving him of the charts he needs to read. Undeterred by failure plays blistering drums that ultimately wins over the demented Simmons/Fletcher.

This is a rare film, at times compulsively watchable and yet beyond cliche, reaching so far over the top, your jaw should drop with it's inappropriate. It is the hyper-masculine world - no women allowed (they would never stop screaming ABUSE!) - that reminds you why it is still a man's world without ever once saying anything about gender. If you want greatness, you need masculine aggression, unbound by any laws.

Why no one notices this is even more unbelievable to me than the absurd cruelty of the film.