Whiplash (2014)

Director: Damien Chazelle
Writer(s): Chazelle
Starring: Miles Teller, J.K Simmons, and Melissa Benoist

Critics tend to overhype movies; it’s almost as if most of them are all in the same room when they type up their reviews, feeding off of each other.  I almost picture a 12 Angry Men kind of scenario, where the handful of critics that dislike a movie are slowly subjected to the opinions of the majority critics that liked it, until their opinion is completely changed, and all of them are in agreement.  If you don’t believe me, take a look at most critic vs. user scores on Rotten Tomatoes…oftentimes, the most critically lauded films have relatively terrible user scores, and vice-versa.

Now I’m going to be a complete hypocrite by saying that if a movie gets almost unanimous praise, it pumps me up into seeing it.  I suppose that’s the whole point of the critic.  In some cases, I’m sure a critic, or more likely, a set of critics, are paid-off to write positive reviews (I’ve read that certain studios have certain deals with certain publications, preventing said publications from rating their movies too low) and all that is just factored into the movies’ million-dollar marketing budget; that would certainly help to explain why critically-lauded movies tend to overwhelm me more often than not.

Yet every once in a great while, they get it right.  Such is the case with Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, a film that has more non-stop energy than the average action film.  It’s also a great movie for those that are typically turned-off by the current formula of theatrical releases, which seem to state that the more convoluted and hard-to-follow a story is, the better.  Whiplash simply focuses on Andrew, as he is “mentored” by music teacher Fletcher.  But Fletcher isn’t an easy man to get along with, or else this would be a boring movie; he’s the type that can see the potential in someone, and will stop at nothing to bring it out of them.  Even if his tactics might cross the line into emotional and psychological abuse.

As simple a story this is, it’s one that easily could fall flat without excellent performances from its cast, and Miles Teller (as Andrew) and J.K. Simmons (as Fletcher) are more than game.  I would say that the Academy Award awarded to Simmons as Best Supporting Actor is further proof of his stunning turn, but the Academy is nothing more than a politic-filled shitshow handing out awards that are every bit as meaningless as “verified accounts” are in Twitter (and with about the same set of vague, always-changing rules).  However, this certainly isn’t met to discredit Simmons, and all he has accomplished in this picture; he stalks and rages across the set, ferociously delivering his lines with an almost-frightening believability.  Like the best roles, it doesn’t feel like he’s playing the part just to appease a director and camera; it feels like an actual extension of who he is.  But Teller plays the perfect “victim” to his maniac, and what we have is a horror-movie dynamic caught up within the framework of a drama.

All this being said, Whiplash is certainly not flawless; it somehow feels the need to throw in a couple subplots that mainly go nowhere, simply because Hollywood movies seem to require that there be subplots, no matter how pointless or unnecessary they may be.  These scenes, while pretty rare, also help to undo some of the momentum created by a film that has more intensity than 90% of all horror movies released in a given year.  They also make the film drag in parts, and feel slightly overlong; while the “action” sequences are so gripping that time just melts away, the added dramatic scenes, which add no weight to the story, but add a few unnecessary minutes to its running time.  If only they had trimmed off the “excess fat” and focused entirely on Andrew, this would have been as close to a perfect film as it possibly could have.

But this could be the perfect compromise for a date film; there’s enough kinetic motion to appease action movie fans, yet equal amount of emotion and inspiration to appease those that like to focus more on the story.  It’s a simple fable of two men who share a common goal, yet have to take two very different paths to get there, and it’s easily one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last couple years.

RECAP: There are plenty of intense sequence to appease action movie fans, yet enough emotion to enthrall those that enjoy a good story.  Performances, mainly from Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons are just about pitch-perfect (lazy pun intended), and the writing is sharp (lazy pun intended).  It does throw in a couple unnecessary subplots that essentially go nowhere, while briefly dragging the film down, but it always manages to regain its momentum.  One of the best movies I’ve seen in the last couple years.

RATING: 8.5/10