Whiplash Movie Review
Terence Fletcher is not the type of teacher that most of us would have come across, and Andrew Nieman is not your average student. Whiplash, then, deals with two individuals with atypical behavior patterns. Terence Fletcher, who is a conductor at the Shaffer Conservatory, is a dominator exacting flawless performance from his jazz band, and part of his repertoire are verbal abuse and intimidation. Nineteen-year-old Andrew Nieman wants to be one of the greats of jazz music, and he is now being tutored by none other than Mr. Fletcher himself. It isn’t bad to have an ambition to be a great jazz drummer, but with Andrew it goes a bit too far. He has a crush on naive Nicole (Melissa Benoist), but soon realizes that she will be an impediment to his achieving greatness. A coffeehouse talk with Nicole exemplifies how possessed he is with this ‘greatness delusion’ that he just dismisses her out of his life.
Soon, under the tutelage of Fletcher, Andrew becomes full of conceit, which is glaringly apparent at a dinner table conversation with his father (Paul Reiser) and other family members. Can Andrew handle the pressure that Fletcher puts him through or is he going to give up? If he does, it will end his dreams of music immortality. What intrigued me most was that, how the flaws in the primary characters are the reasons why Whiplash accomplishes such brilliance. It is the characters’ weaknesses that are the biggest plus points when looking retrospectively at the fantastic works of actors J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller in Whiplash as Terence Fletcher and Andrew Nieman respectively.
Whiplash lingers with you, as the visceral last 10 minutes are quite easily the best part of the entire movie. Fans of jazz music will most certainly like the score. Whiplash is not an inspirational movie per se, and if that’s what you are seeking, then there are plenty of other options, the most recent being The Theory of Everything. If you want to see a well-directed movie, with some great performances, and excellent editing and cinematography, then Whiplash it is.
What do you think?