Whiplash

2014 drama

Rating: 17/20

Plot: A kid who wants to be the next Buddy Rich will do anything to achieve his dream of reaching drumming immortality, and that includes dealing with an almost sadistic, abusive instructor at his music school.

I was pleased to see this did win an Oscar for editing because I don't think I need to see another movie from last year to make the decision that this was the best-edited film of the year. And I didn't think about it until just now, but this deserves its "Best Achievement in Sound Mixing" award, too. That's all especially true during a very lengthy climactic scene. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll say three things about it. First, it's one of my favorite endings I've seen in a while. Second, it's one of the most invigorating things I've ever seen, just completely intoxicating. And yes, I'm aware that that might sound hyperbolically implausible, but it really is. Edge of my couch. Mouth agape. Spleen shivering. Third, I can't right now remember a movie I've seen in which music is filmed better, or at least this thrillingly. You don't like jazz? Well, the ending of this movie is going to make you like jazz, at least for ten minutes. You'll forget who Paul Reiser is even though he's right in front of you, and you'll suddenly like jazz music. And an ending that is capable of pulling either of those off--let alone both of them--is an ending, ladies and gentlemen. I'd love to argue with somebody about whether or not it's a happy ending or a completely devastating one or a little of both. Regardless, the ending's got power, and it stuck with me and rattled in my head for a long time after I'd finished the movie and worked on getting to sleep. It's just astonishing.

This is the lone best picture nominee that I hadn't even heard of before the Academy Awards which, in my mind, made it a sort of dark horse. Now, it's the type of film I want to tell everybody about. I want to stand on Paul Reiser's shoulders and shout at random strangers to grab this from their nearest Redbox or Blockbuster Video store and watch it immediately. And when you do watch it, don't watch it for the narrative. Watch it as a dark contemporary fable. There's a narrative there, of course, but you could almost argue that it's got some storytelling issues. Ignore those, figure out what the pair of characters at the center of this symbolize, and then start pondering all the questions that this film brings up. It's an experience. I don't think it would work without the two absolutely terrific performances director Damien Chazelle got from his actors. With J. K. Simmons' Fletcher, you get somebody who is simultaneously very human and the most monstrous example of humanity that you're likely to see on a screen. His wrinkles do a lot of the acting for him, that and his scary bald head, and although this is the kind of powerful performance where he's cheating to achieve that power because he spends the majority of the movie screaming, it's the most convincing screaming I've heard in a movie in a really long time. Lines like "Get the fuck out of my sight before I demolish you" seem a little cartoonish when you read them, but here, it's convincing. And when he screams "You are a worthless, friendless, faggot-lipped little piece of shit whose mommy left daddy when she figured out he wasn't Eugene O'Neill, and who is now weeping and slobbering all over my drum set like a fucking nine-year old girl! So for the final, father-fucking time, say it louder!" you're actually convinced that a real mean guy is saying those really mean words even though part of you knows that nobody could ever say that. Of course, my favorite Simmons' line here is one that either sounded like a mistake or that I just didn't hear correctly: "If you deliberately sabotage my band, I will fuck you like a pig." Maybe Simmons had watched Deliverance the night before. And then there's Miles Teller who inexplicably wasn't nominated for his performance as Andrew in this. I liked Teller in The Spectacular Now, a movie that I didn't like, but I really really really liked him here. His character spends a lot of this movie in pain; he sweats and he bleeds and he screams into a future that only a small percentage of human beings can even fathom. And you just feel like Teller worked so hard with this character, probably screamed, bled, and sweated just like his character. I got exhausted watching Teller. Both Simmons and Teller had to train musically for these parts, and there was never a time I didn't completely buy that Teller was the fantastic drumming machine his character was supposed to be or that Simmons wasn't the mad conductor that he was supposed to be. However, as much as I liked these performances and the way these characters clashed with each other, I want to point out that neither character was likable. But it doesn't matter when the characters are metaphors anyway, and the look in their eyes during their final moments in this movie? Oh, man, it doesn't even matter if you like the characters because you're going to feel something there.

This movie is completely captivating, the kind of movie that you can't absorb because it's actually absorbing you. It's also a work of art that has a lot to say about the human condition, motivation, resilience, balance, legacy, sacrifice, relationship. A knock out.