Review of Whiplash (2014) by Axgrinder — 16 Feb 2015

Whiplash is definitely on my short list for best movies of 2014. A good story, excellent casting, and fine direction are the reasons why. Better known for his TV roles, J.K. Simmons makes the most of his opportunity.

Andrew (Miles Teller) is a freshman jazz drummer at a top music school. Terence Fletcher (JK Simmions) teaches the school’s best students, mostly upper classmen, but he is also the teacher everyone fears. Fletcher’s motto is that good musicians don’t become great musicians unless they are pushed hard to do so, but the techniques used by Fletcher to motivate his students fall somewhere between extreme and brutal.

Andrew comes from a nice middle class family in the burbs. Family dinner conversations have a competitive air in which the small college athletic successes of his siblings dominate. Andrew is driven to succeed as a jazz drummer, but he is also young and impressionable. He notices that in addition to being a tough teacher, Fletcher appears to also have a caring and a compassionate side to him. Andrew buys into Fletcher’s belief system and commits to doing whatever it takes to be the best, including making a decision to terminate a budding relationship with his new girlfriend.

The question of whether Fletcher is a good guy or a bad guy will have you on the edge of your seat until the movie’s dramatic conclusion. You don’t need to like jazz music to like this film. The terrific music is just a bonus. Director Damien Chazelle’s pacing is right on target and a couple of minor plot faults near the end of the movie aren’t enough throw this fine film off tempo.