Whiplash

A film set at a music school. Andrew plays the drums and has got into the best conservatory in the country. All he wants is to be a great musician. Fletcher conducts. He runs the school's top band and getting into it is everyone's aim. Andrew is chosen. At the first rehearsal Fletcher's method appears: shouting, humiliation, a thrown chair and hours of repetition. From there the film is an escalation. Andrew practises at night until he bleeds, ends his relationship, fights with his family, and starts to resemble Fletcher. What the narrative is interested in is not talent but cost: the film neither defends the teacher's method nor condemns it, it only shows the result and leaves the verdict to the audience. Fletcher calms down once and explains his intention. That conversation is the most dangerous moment in the film, because for a moment he seems right. The ending takes place in one scene and runs nine minutes. There is no dialogue, only drums and two people looking at each other. When the director could not get the film made, he first shot eighteen minutes of the same script as a short; it won at a festival and only then was the feature financed. J. K. Simmons had played the same part in the short. Shooting was completed in nineteen days. Simmons won an Academy Award for the role; the film also won for editing and sound. Miles Teller, J. K. Simmons and Paul Reiser are in the cast. Damien Chazelle wrote and directed, working from his own musical training. Who it is for: anyone who likes films that get their tension from rhythm. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a music film; the narrative works like a sports film and has little interest in loving jazz.