WHIPLASH

Whiplash

Grade: A

Starring: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, and Paul Reiser; with Melissa Benoist as Nicole, Austin Stowell as Ryan Connelly and Nate Lang as Carl Tanner

Premise: A skilled young drummer attending an elite musical academy comes under the tutelage of a renowned but abusive orchestra conductor.

Rated R for constant profanity and abusive language (including racial slurs and sexual references), bloody images, and some intense emotional content

Whiplash:

1. The lash of a whip

2. An abrupt snapping motion or change of direction resembling the lash of a whip

3. Also 'whiplash injury', a neck injury caused by a sudden jerking backward, forward, or both, of the head

                                                (from dictionary.reference.com)

All three listed definitions of the single word in the title of writer/director Damian Chazelle’s nerve-shredding Academy-Award nominated drama are appropriate descriptions of what happens in the film—if not literally then figuratively. Some of the most startling content truly is capable of causing one to recoil, possibly fast enough to give oneself whiplash. But another visceral word that could be used to describe the affect this film has is gutpunch. Yes, that, too, would be accurate.

The 29-year-old Chazelle made a huge splash on the film scene this year—after only a few previous writing and directing credits—with this brutal, harrowing film, and it’s no wonder. The screenplay takes the idea of tough competition at a high-falutin’ music school (the fictional New York-based Shaffer Conservatory) and makes it positively, almost literally, cutthroat. The demanding music instructor that looms large over the proceedings is inspired by a story that jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker only became ‘The Yardbird’ aka 'The Bird' because Jo-Jo Jones threw a cymbal at his head during a mediocre showing with the band and told him to “get the f*** out”. Humiliated but determined, Parker came back and changed jazz music. Thus, the Shaffer Academy instructor considers it his duty to, in his words, “push people beyond what they believe they’re capable of” because he wants to have his own Charlie Parker. Just how far he’ll go to do it is what makes Whiplash such a demanding film. Just how far a young drumming protégé will go to try to impress this monster, and to realize his own dream, is what makes it mesmerizing.

Plot

Nineteen-year-old Andrew Nieman (Miles Teller) is bursting with pride at having gained admission to Shaffer, having been raised by a single parent (Paul Reiser) and idolizing the likes of Buddy Rich his entire life. One day in entry-level orchestra, he catches the eye (and ear) of visiting instructor Terrence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), the conductor of Shaffer’s nationally-recognized jazz core orchestra. Excited, Andrew goes to the classroom and greets the other musicians, watches Fletcher come in and lead the group in a few warm-up numbers…and someone happens to be out of tune. Fletcher—whose bald, muscular, blue-eyed visage seems the epitome of cool—descends on the offending brass musician and screams obscenities until the kid flees the class in tears. And that’s just the beginning. Within the first week, Andrew, despite being remarkably quick of hand on the drums, has been cussed out, slapped repeatedly, and had a chair thrown at his head.

Despite this abuse, Andrew, who no one has ever thought much of, buckles down, deciding to make drumming his life. He even dumps his cutie girlfriend Nicole (Melissa Benoist) because he’s so intent on being “great”, he wants to dedicate his whole life to it. That means losing sleep, skipping meals, ignoring phone calls from his father, and drumming until his hands are bleeding and blistering and his body is covered in sweat. He wants to be great. After word of Fletcher’s horrific methods gets out, Andrew is asked to inform on him. Andrew has certainly suffered at his hands—having been called unfathomable names and suffering a near-death experience in his attempts to gain the man’s approval—but he feels the better for it. He’s become better then he would’ve been, he’s surpassed all the core orchestra’s other drummers, and he’s good enough that he has might have figured out how beat Fletcher at his own game.

What Works?

Anyone who comes into Whiplash not knowing about the verbal abuse aspect of the film will be appalled. I already knew the gist of what was coming, and yet I was reduced to a quivering blob of jelly within the first half hour. Suspense barely does the movie’s dramatic tension justice. Whiplash is electrifying and grueling, it’s mesmerizing, and it’s torturous. When J.K. Simmons won a Golden Globe a week ago for his performance as Fletcher, he thanked actor Miles Teller for inspiring him “to scream at him and hit him in the face.” He wasn’t exaggerating.

Simmons, who is also the favorite for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, towers over the film, as fearsome and loathsome a villain as has appeared on the screen in some time. It's difficult to fathom that this cruel, sadistic man is played by the same actor who fronts the droll Farmers Insurance commercials, and who was once worth several laughs a minute as the blustering J.Jonah Jameson in the original Spiderman trilogy. Here, when he's bending over, leering into the faces of his petrified students--at angle so that the shadows in the lines on his face darken and the folds in his skin become even more pronounced--and starts bellowing, he looks less like a person and more like a twisted gargoyle from someone's nightmare. It's the definition of a commanding performance, and the genius of Chazelle’s writing is that he makes Fletcher an actual person with depth and feelings without any contrived daddy-issues backstory. In the film he’s matched only at the end, when the drummer played by talented Miles Teller (of The Spectacular Now and Divergent fame) engages Fletcher in a gut-wrenching, jaw-dropping game of F*** You that will have viewers on the edges of their seats. Teller is understandably overshadowed by Simmons, but his performance, all coiled force (and a considerable bit of physical agony) is haunting as well.

It’s also impossible to watch this movie without appreciating the music. Jazz may make most people think of Frank Sinatra coffeehouse fare, but the drumming here (“jazz drumming”) is as fierce and unrelenting as that in any rock music I’ve ever heard. The commitment and stamina it must take to learn to play such numbers at a performance level is almost beyond imagination. Some of the most-heard numbers are Hank Levy’s “Whiplash” and Duke Ellington’s “Caravan”. And yes, in case you’re wondering, Teller, who had drumming experience, played all his own numbers after several months of tutelage from notable drummer Nate Lang, who plays one of Andrew’s drumming rivals in the movie. Here’s hoping Lang wasn’t quite as tough as Fletcher.

What Doesn’t Work?

I wouldn’t have minded if the movie was a little bit happier—and it takes a gutpunch (there’s that word again) twist late that makes you want to scream in devastation—but my only real point of issue is that a few of the climactic numbers, impressive though they are, begin to drag on.

Content

Every other word starts with a ‘f’, there’s some graphic shots of bleeding blisters, and there are repeated shots of young men driving themselves almost past the point of endurance to try to please their drill sergeant maestro. This movie is rough.

Bottom Line

“The two most dangerous words in the English language are: good job.” So says the tyrannical monster at the center of this ferociously-intense film. Whiplash didn’t get its Oscar nominations by pleasing voters (at least not in a pleasantries sort of way), it got them by shocking them and giving them something they couldn’t forget. Featuring a couple great performances and some superb drum solos, this is one wild and crazy-good movie.

Whiplash (2014)

Written and Directed by Damien Chazelle

Rated R

Length: 107 minutes