There's never been an argument quite like the one made in Whiplash, a daring and stirring drama about a nice kid named Andrew (Miles Teller) who wants to be a top jazz drummer but ends up under the watch of Terrence Fletcher (JK Simmons,) a professor with a terrifying way of telling people they're doing it all wrong. On his first day of class, Andrew gets a chair hurdled at his head simply because he's slightly off tempo. However, this film tries to give Fletcher some humanity by trying to explain why he might be coming across as such a monster. In another film, this would be forced....only FEELING as if there's a question of Fletcher's humanity. However, Whiplash shows writer-director Damien Chazelle giving more depth than just a questionable response. He explores Fletcher's seeming evil nature and shows the point of view of both determined but terrified Andrew and supposed villain Fletcher. Chazelle also puts the ultimate power of the answer in the hands of the audience, a risky but ultimately provocative move on his part. This film would not have worked, however, if it weren't for the brilliant Simmons. He dives into the role, giving it all he possibly has and never petering out of what he's supposed to be. If Simmons does not win the best supporting actor Oscar..it will be one of the biggest sins in the history of The Academy Awards.
The film is mostly told from the point of view of Andrew, who loves his devoted father (an excellent and underused Paul Reiser) and even gets up the nerve to ask a movie theater employee named Nicole (Melissa Benoist) out. However, once introduced to Fletcher and his prestigious, highly regarded band, Andrew is torn between the success of making it big and the detriment of falling out of line with his life. Fletcher pushes Andrew to never be a second late to any rehearsals or classes and diminishes his confidence every time he misses a beat..literally. It's interesting to note that Simmons, while having played some unlikable characters, has never played a character that is truly evil (I have been told by multiple sources that he did in the highly regarded TV show "Oz" but I have never seen a single episode of that and his role in the Mark Wahlberg thriller Contraband wasn't evil so much as a bad dude) until now. Sure...he screams a lot and is aggressive in the original Spiderman trilogy but this shows a whole other side of him. He makes Fletcher not just a monster but inhumane in the way he presents himself. It's hard to say how Simmons and Chazelle make him such a vile, disgusting washout of a man without giving anything away but it's pretty incredible right from the first scene.
Simmons' performance proves to be a detriment a few times. This is only because, as great as Teller, Benoist and Reiser all are, the film always feels to lose its spark when Simmons is off screen. He walks away with the part and, throughout almost every second of his screen time, quite literally caused my jaw to drop. Right off the bat, the audience feels Fletcher's presence in the auditorium they are sitting in. Although Simmons seems like a nice guy from what I've seen on talk shows and read in various interviews, he is so realistically crazy and evil here that it's almost hard to imagine a nice guy pulling this role off.
This is also a perfectly edited film, with Chazelle directing the beat of the drums as well as the sounds of the other instruments with a purposeful intensity. He gives the film a chilling claustrophobia that makes the audience feel just as trapped as Andrew. Even in a scene where Andrew and Nicole go out for pizza, the direction is so zoomed in and close that it makes the overall feelo f the situation uncomfortable. This scene is also nerve wracking because it makes Andrew and Nicole's eventual downfall within their relationship feel closer and closer as the scene goes on.
Whiplash is a great film with a more than Oscar worthy performance from Simmons. His performance is definitely the best I've seen all year and I dare say one of the best I've seen in my multiple years of watching films obsessively. If it weren't for him, this film still would have been very good but he drives the film to the status of great.
(5 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for strong language including some sexual references)
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