Film Review: whiplash

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Film Review : Whiplash 

If you’re expecting Whiplash to be one of those sanitized musical television series and movies you saw portrayed back in the eighties, for example Fame or more recently Glee, then don’t bother going to see this film.

Each episode of Fame would begin with dance teacher Debbie Allen motivating her class by telling them “if you want fame you’ve gotta earn it”. And the students all knew to be the best, but they’ve all got to try a little harder. In Glee, the words of encouragement are coming from teacher Will Schuster, played by Mathew Morrison. His idea of encouragement was to be firm but fair.

Whiplash turns these ideas of positive encouragement on its head and shows a darker side of musical schools. This is an uncompromising movie that examines the real price you have to pay for fame. JK Simmons plays Mr Fletcher, the demonic music teacher. His style could be likened to that of a psychotic army drill instructor; he is brutalising perfection outof his students.

Simmons gives a performance so filled with bile and anger that even sitting in the audience, you are left shaken by its force. It’s such an effective and believable performance that it should guarantee its presenter an Oscar in the next few weeks. Fletcher is vicious in his appraisal of his charges, opposed to his students’ meek acceptance of his verbal and sometimes physical battering.

Whiplash is the title of a jazz tune that the boys in the band are expected to perfect for an up and coming music competition. Miles Teller plays the young, ambitious drummer, who hopes to win a place in the school’s elite jazz band with Simmons as the leader, who expects perfection from his players. He sees failure as either weakness or defiance. The young Teller, who hopes to impress Simmons, demonstrates an almost Olympian commitment to the challenge of perfecting his drumming skills.

Watching Whiplash leaves you feeling as uncomfortable as the students. Such is the expletive driven battering; those that fail to achieve the conductor’s high standards receive nothing, and such is the convincing force with which Simmons delivers his vicious lines. You can’t help but squirm as he switches up his gears of intolerance.

This brilliant and original drama is a modern-day twisted High School Musical, replacing happy pop songs with the uncomfortable rhythms of jazz. Director Damien Chazelle explores ambition in the different ways both pupil and master quest for greatness, then descend in to an obsessive madness for perfection.

You will not see a better acting performances this year than those of Simmons and Teller. Their acting is dark, menacing and intense, just like the movie, which you watch sitting on the edge of your seat. Like the jazz music they play, it is a film that is both off beat and unconventional with its unusual theme. It makes it something to be seen and savoured.