Whiplash Review

        I’m back. I’ve decided to spice things up a bit since we’re starting to enter the Summer season. If you’re like me, I like to keep a schedule with what I do in this six year initiative. Although, the franchise that I’m going to talk about only has eight entries. Those will be pushed back for June through July. For May, I’ll do my directors look. This time I’ll focus in on Damien Chazelle. I’ve only covered one of his films when I talked about the films that has NASA involved. You can check out First Man to see what I thought about it. This will be easier for me since I’ll only talk about three of his theatrically released films. So let’s get into it. 

1. Andrew’s Quest for Percussion Perfection

        I think everyone’s first exposure to the film is the onset verbal and physical abuse that is at play here. While I’ll discuss the Academy Award winner in the next tab, I feel that there’s proper context that’s needed to justify why that was shown in the film. We follow Andrew as he’s a loner in in the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory. He’s an avid drummer in the school and wants to make the most of it. He’s spotted by conductor Terrence Fletcher and invites him to join his ensemble. 

        What follows is his quest to be the best drummer possible, in the most toxic way possible. Miles Teller plays Andrew as a loner and an outsider. He’s mostly to himself where he doesn’t know anyone and doesn’t have any friends whatsoever. The little bit of a personal life that he has is that he mostly spends it with his Dad watching movies. It’s established that he’s a drumming prodigy when he was younger, to the point where he has pictures of famous percussionists. 

        Just a chance encounter with Fletcher makes Andrew want to be a part of his ensemble. To the point where he takes a peak and is spooked when the conductor spots him through the window. I like that we get a gradual reveal that Fletcher is an extremely tough conductor who demands perfection by his means. While I’ll talk about him in the next tab since his performance is something else. Like, J.K. Simmons deserved the win but anytime he gets visibly and admirably upset, he instantly reminds me of J. Jonah Jameson from the early Spider-Man films.

        Anyways, one can view Andrew’s character arc as something where he manages to overcome a lot of adversity or a descent to insanity where his own determination has alienated everyone around him. Like, we see a breakdown of his character when he gets berated, to the point where he sees that to perfect his craft. Just his determination to get blistered and bloodied attempting to be the better percussionist is down right shocking to me at least. I think it’s one thing where this type of film is mostly veered into a horror angle. 

        You got another film like Black Swan from Darren Aronofsky where the angle is mostly on ballet. Where the dancer is driven to be better when facing competition. It’s gimmick is mostly where she loses herself and is played in a mostly horror angle. In comparison to this, it’s very psychological where Andrew becomes combative when his position is challenged or when his family thinks little of his accomplishment. It’s like a direct attack on him where he becomes ballistic and alienates everyone. 

        I think one example where we see it is when he has a brief relationship with the theater worker named Nicole. It’s a brief fling where we don’t get too much focus on her, but one scene practically sums up what Andrew is all about in the film. They’re out together on a pizza date, Nicole and Andrew talk about why they each attend their respective colleges. Nicole attends Fordham but having no clue on what she wants to do. Andrew states that Shaffer is the best and it will help him be the best drummer around. The way the camera sets it up is perfect since Andrew has everything laid out while his girlfriend has no clue. 

        Lastly, I should comment on how the film was shot. It has that grounded look to it where it’s very personal since we’re only focusing on Andrew and his plight. The grittiness adds to it when we see Andrew aggressively play on his drum kit, to the point where he punches the snare and douses his bloodied hand into a bucket of ice water. First time watching it, I was not expecting him to be in a car crash. With the intensity the film has, it smacks you where no one is expecting that to happen at all. 

2. Fletcher

        Let’s talk about this guy. Everyone’s first exposure is through Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy or through various other shows or films. Who would’ve known that his Jameson performance could be morphed into a performance where he can mentally and physically abuse anyone to meet his performance needs. It’s one of those performances where you can’t look away and just looking at any small YouTube clip doesn’t do it justice unless you see it all playout in full. We see just who he is seemingly in the first minutes when he sees Andrew play and just be subtle with his approach. 

        One would think that he would be this curmudgeon of a conductor where nothing satisfies him and uses his methods to bully and berate any of the players. He’s not quite like that, I think what makes him so duplicitous is that he can switch from being polite to manipulative. When he gets to know Andrew personally, he asks about his personal life. Not knowing that any moment where Andrew messes up, he’ll use that to belittle him. Just the moment when he flips out at our guy is just wow. I think it’s everyone’s nightmare to trigger a situation where a teacher or anyone above to rain down tactical verbal insults with extra ammo. 

        I think what makes him endearing and a tough watch at the same time is that he expects everyone to be on his level when the ensemble is performing at the concerts. There’s not one moment where he tells them that it’s just any concert and they’ll move on. It’s one where he states it upfront that careers are made and some aren’t realized for his players. More so, he can promote and demote any player to be backup just by his feeling. This is where most of the animosity between him and Andrew play out and it’s great drama where he seemingly meets his match.

        I’m glad that the film doesn’t have a moment where we see him at a younger age or in a phase of life where he gets the brunt of the abuse and then we make the connection. No, I think it’s just that he’s this enigma of an authority and teacher where we want to ask questions of why he is the way that he is. Near the end is where we see him and Andrew seemingly reconcile with what they both went through. Just with his dialogue, he believes that his methods produce results it’s a necessary motive to push people through extremes. And I’m glad that the film doesn’t spell it out that it’s either right or wrong, keeping it vague enough where we have to think about it. 

3. Perfection

        It’s been a while since I talked about the whole point of the film. Mostly, if you’ve been reading the stuff that I put out, I just talk about the characters since they’re the main driving force of the film. The very reason why we go and see movies is to see them and what they do. Every once in a while you get a film where it’s very active for the characters take the direction of the story where we have no clue where it’s going but are along for the ride. With this one, it’s clear that the main idea of the film is the idea of perfection and the gray area where it’s either a good or bad thing. 

        With how the movie has it in front of us is where we see just how dangerous this idea of it is since Andrew is morphed into someone who is committed to his craft. To the point where he becomes alienated where it dominates his whole life. Dude straight up moves his mattress next to his drums to be better at it. As I mentioned earlier, the film is very gray with how one can perceive this idea. We see Andrew go through the ringer of being the star drummer, and the sacrifice he makes is either the right or wrong way. It’s very rare for a film to beat you over the head when something is seemingly wrong but won’t visually communicate that it is. 

        Just how it’s presented in my point of view. It’s a messed-up life to have the abuse be brought on and then take it to the extreme where the craft must be perfected in order to not get the verbal onslaught. We see Andrew go through the ringer and detach his own personal life to please Fletcher for fear he may be demoted. The film is like a quasi-underdog story mixed with a bit of tragedy where Andrew goes about his endeavor. One where it has a seemingly celebratory ending, but when viewed in a different perspective it’s a tragic case of toxic perfection.  

4. Overall

        Whiplash is one of the best Independent films to come out in the 2010s.