Review of Whiplash (2014) by Jacob — 18 Nov 2014

I’m have mixed feelings on this film. The acting is great with J.K. Simmons delivering as always, there is a great motivation story in here, the main character is relatable for a good chunk of the movie, and the film looks and sounds great.

All of this makes it so frustrating when the film gets to the third act. The protagonist becomes unrelatable and unlikeable when you see how overly driven he is to succeed and when the film ended I wanted to distance myself from being like him as much as possible.

The film also sends a mixed message telling viewers to work hard and succeed but also shows that downsides of overly driving yourself. The third act takes what could’ve been a wonderful film and just makes it pretty good.

This is so heartbreaking for me as I was loving this movie for a while and then the third act came and it just made me want to punch the lead in the face. Now as I am writing this I have yet to see the reviews so I do not know if other critics feel the same way about the film but it wouldn’t surprised me if it got tons of acclaim and no one addressed it.

In regards to whether or not I’d recommend the film I’d say see it for the first two-thirds but brace yourself after that because you might not like what you see.