'There are no two
words in the English language more harmful than good job.'
Whiplash is about a young man played by Miles Teller who desperately
wants to impress his drumming instructor Fletcher, played by J.K Simmons.
I’d heard Whiplash was a film all about the performances.
While I was happy to see a film that was mainly built from that, I was pleasantly
surprised when I saw a film that had a lot more moving pieces that I wasn’t aware
of beforehand.
The performance from J.K Simmons is no doubt the best
supporting performance I’ve seen all year. His character Fletcher is the
definition of ‘not taking prisoners’ in his approach to drum instructing. Simmons
is darkly hilarious in his attitude and line delivery and by the end of the
film you totally understand his character as a man so completely focused on his
goal. It’s great to see a character who is so invested in his ambitions and is
willing to psychologically destroy his students to get it.
While Miles Teller was fine in his performance and I totally
respect him for the amount of real drumming he did for his role, I never
totally understood his character. He had been written as simply as someone who
just wanted to be a great drummer, that sometimes was a flaw in the character
as it made him slightly (and only in certain moments) one dimensional.
With all the drumming and jazz music in the film you must
have great editing in order for the audience to keep invested. The editing in
the film is absolutely solid, fast paced and added a layer of tension, especially
in the final act of the film. It’s also shot beautifully. One shot specifically
which I saw in the trailer of Miles Teller’s character putting his blistered
hand in icy water was immaculately shot. There are many visually stunning shots
like this in the film and they were an absolute treat to see.
The film runs with a very straightforward narrative which I appreciated
as so many films of late have felt very bloated. It was refreshing to have a
simple story about a guy who wants to be the best, Totally the opposite of what Foxcatcher achieved. The film reminded me of Rocky and
some of those older sports films. My only real fault I had with the film is
almost a compliment depending on how you look at it. When it ended I wasn’t
finished watching these characters and would have been perfectly happy to have
another twenty or so minutes of runtime, even though the ending is perfectly conclusive.
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