Interesting:

Miles Teller, who plays Andrew the young jazz drummer, is a self-taught drummer but more rock and roll style and didn’t hold his sticks like a jazz drummer. To help him learn to fake play like a jazz pro, the director cast a real musician, Nate Lang to play Teller’s rival, Carl. Lang is a member of the New York band the Howlin’ Souls.

Should I see it?

Whiplash is a movie I recommend to everyone, except children, especially if you are a music lover!



Metascore: 88/100

RottenTomatoes: 95%

Directed by Damien Chazelle

Released on November 14, 2014

Running Time: 107 minutes

Starring: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist

Review – 9.5/10

A promising young man who plays drum gets an invitation by the conductor of a prestigious conservatory band to come and play for him.

Andrew, 19 years old, is a promising young jazz drummer that enrolls at Shaffer Conservatory, a prestigious school in New York. One day, the conductor of the band hears him play and invites him to join the band’s practice. Andrew will realize really quickly that it won’t be easy not only to achieve is goal to be the best drummer in history, but also to please conductor Fletcher, who as a way of teaching that is, to say the least, very unconventional. Fletcher has a particular way to help his students to be the best, and his students and their family may not agree that this method is the best way to achieve their dreams.

The story itself is incredible, many movies has been done about music and young people who wants to reach their dreams, but none of them comes close to Whiplash. The movie is pretty simple with no backstory, a young man who dreams to be the best drum player to ever live, absolutely nothing new here, but what makes Whiplash differs from the other movies of the same type is the actors, the script and the directing of the story. It has an intensity that lacks in many movies, something that will make you feel every emotions going through the screen. You don’t see much of the characters lives outside of the school and the band’s practice, and that’s fine. The movie is all about music and battles between two persons, between themselves, Andrew and Fletcher, because the student does not agree with Fletcher’s way of teaching, and a battle within themselves, how they live their lives with the choices they make. That’s all the movie is about, and it’s so well directed and straight to the point that even if it’s a simple story, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. You will remember this movie and conductor Fletcher long after you’ve seen it!

J.K. Simmons, as Fletcher, is magnificent. No wonder he won Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes, Screen Actor Guild Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and I predict he will also win an Oscar on February 22. As a conductor he has good intentions, in his own way, but still you just so want to put him in his place for what he does to his students. And when an actor makes you think a specific way about their characters on the way they act, it means he outdid himself to give us his greatest performance to this day. Miles Teller, as young Andrew, is a real discovery. It’s not his first movie, but his role is completely different from what we are used to see of him, and after watching him in Whiplash, I can’t wait to see him again in a movie and a role as intense, he shown us that he has potential to go far in the industry of acting. And since Miles Teller isn’t really playing in the movie, it takes a great actor to be able to fake play drum and make us believe it’s really him playing, no special effects can help you achieve that.

I try to find a disappointing fact about the movie, and honestly it’s hard to think of one! The acting was great, from everybody; the storyline was excellent, I was captivated from the beginning until the end, the pace of the movie was just right, not the same opinion of Fletcher about Andrew tempo in the movie! It’s supposed to be a jazz movie, but the sounds isn’t really jazz and I would have love to have about five to ten minutes more of the movie to show us a little more about Andrew’s life for the future, but that’s it. Considering that the movie was shot in only 19 days, I think it’s more than easy to overcome these two mistakes. The movie is a nominee for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and it’s no wonder why.

Whiplash is absolutely incredible and will make you have so many feelings, from being totally outrage one minute to have a smile on your face at what Andrew can accomplish the next, it’s a movie you really don’t want to miss.

Personal Commentary

I loved this movie, one of the best I ever saw. Because the story and acting is really good I recommend this to everyone, but for the music lovers, especially the ones who loves a great drum beat, this movie is for you!