In Whiplash, Miles Teller plays Andrew, a young drummer attending the prestigious Shaffer music school. Teller has a love for drumming and knows he has to practice hard to stay ahead of the competition. He's interrupted one day during a practice session by Terrance Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), the leader of the JVC Studio Band, and this begins a very volatile relationship between the two.
Fletcher initially tries to learn a little bit about Andrew, which leads Andrew to believe Fletcher's not so bad. Andrew soon finds outthat Fletcher's way of bringing out excellence is to bully his students into fearing him. He berates them and doesn't stop at verbal abuse, as he throws things at various members and at one point slaps Andrew, who's not "on Fletcher's tempo". I watched the film with a pretty full theater and heard the gasps as Fletcher's antics escalate. I was surprised that no one walked out, but I think at this stage everyone knew what they were getting into.
I also think that in many ways, Whiplash is the antithesis of Dead Poets Society. In Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams plays John Keating, who is brought in to take over a literature class. He quickly dispenses with the conventional way of teaching literature and seeks to get the best out of students by making them see other points of view. His method is to make the literature come alive and make students see that they can succeed and love the subject matter.
J.K. Simmons plays Terrance Fletcher, a man from whom Keating would probably run screaming. There's little reverence on Fletcher's part for the music being played; it's all material to be memorized and performed as precisely as possible. The drums are a cog in the machine, and playing them requires endurance and practice (oh, and plenty of Band-Aids).
DPS revolves around the magic that Keating creates in dissecting literature. Whiplash is very physical and punishing. Even when practicing, Andrew looks like he's at war with his drum kit. Blood is spilled from wounds opened, and being in Fletcher's group is a test of endurance. There are a lot of stare-offs between Andrew and Fletcher, and Teller's eyes do a lot of work in the film, both when he's battling the drums and when dealing with Fletcher.
I didn't leave the theater uplifted as I did with Dead Poets Society, and that's really not a spoiler. Whiplash is all about the limits one can withstand mentally and emotionally, and it tests the audience just as much as some of the characters are tested.
Movie Standings So Far*
1. American Sniper
2. Whiplash
3. Top Five- Chris Rock's latest comedy. Word to the wise- this is a hard R rated movie, which I wasn't aware of going in.
4. 22 Jump Street: Really enjoyed Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. They even made the obligatory sequel jokes pretty clever.
5. Fargo: I bought the first season of the TV show and thought I should watch the movie first. It was good enough, although by the end the whole accent thing seemed a little overdone.
6. Guardians Of The Galaxy: Wished I had seen it on the big screen. We don't have a small screen, but some of the visuals seemed a little cheesy. Still a fun adventure, though.
7. Alive Inside: Documentary on how music can bring those with dementia to life by stimulating memories. The filmmaker programs personalized iPods for residents of memory care communities, and seeing those afflicted light up was a joy. Working in the senior living industry, I didn't feel that I learned a whole lot, but I'm glad the film's out there.
8. Love Is Strange: Alfred Molina and John Lithgow play George and Ben. After nearly 40 years of being together, they're finally able to marry. After they do, George is fired by the church that employs him. They have to sell their apartment, and in the meantime, George lives with two cops who love to party, and Ben moves in with family. As much as I like Molina and Lithgow, they're not together enough (which I suppose is the point), and the other people in this movie are insufferable. Kind of a let down for me, as I'd heard good things about the film.
9. Zodiac: 2007 film about the hunt for San Francisco's Zodiac killer. Very deliberately paced movie in which Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist character looks crazy to others quite a few times.
*Only films that I saw for the first time are listed.
