Whiplash

“There are no two words in the English language more harmful than Good Job.”

These are words of discouragement from Terence Fletcher – renowned conductor, accomplished musician, teacher from Hell. By the time Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) utters this phrase in the thrilling new film, Whiplash, we have a full understanding of who he is: a maniacal tyrant who pushes his students at the Juilliard-like Shaffer Conservatory to the brink of emotional collapse. The harder, longer and louder he berates his pupils, the easier it will be to weed them out. If they manage to survive his cruel tutelage, then Fletcher knows he will have crafted a truly great musician.

Pain, as it were, is Terence Fletcher’s game. We meet him in the first scene of the movie, when he notices a talented jazz drummer named Andrew (Miles Teller) practicing his routine in private. Fletcher gives Andrew a shot at joining his demanding class, and so begins Andrew’s stint in Hell. From that first moment we meet Fletcher, we know to fear him. His consistently dark wardrobe and purposeful, swift movements make him instantly dangerous. He’s the kind of guy who silences a room five seconds before he even enters it. Much of this is thanks to Simmons’ fearless approach to the character. Anyone who has seen HBO’s Oz is aware of Simmons’ ability to freeze a room, but if you missed that show, you likely only know Simmons as a wiseass and humane funnyman from various films. Terence Fletcher is without question Simmons’ most accomplished film work to date. He plays the character as effortlessly charming, impossibly commanding, and unquestionably mad. Not mad as in simply angry (which, of course, he is), mad as in teetering on the brink of fucking madness. It’s destined to be one of the finest performances of the year. You’ll absolutely love to hate this man.

Miles Teller is a talented young actor who has given strong performances in a number of films, most notably Rabbit Hole and The Spectacular Now. Teller, who had prior training as a drummer, practiced rigorously for the role of Andrew, and the technical dedication has clearly paid off. The musical scenes in this film are authentic and sensational. They are alive in a way that few modern musical set pieces are. Teller literally put his blood, sweat and tears into this performance, and whether Andrew is pounding on the drums or arguing at the dinner table, Teller has officially announced that he’s a young actor who’s hungry for challenging roles.

The way in which Whiplash made it to the big screen should be studied and practiced by every young filmmaker. The film’s writer/director, Damien Chazelle, wrote the script for Whiplash, which was inducted into the Black List (a list of the best unproduced film scripts) in 2012. The following year, he made a short film based on the material, which got into Sundance and allowed him to secure financing for a feature-length version of his script. This past January, he took the full-length Whiplash to Sundance, where it won top honors. In today’s market, that’s a damn crafty way to get your movie made. Even though his script was placed on the most prestigious screenplay list in the business, Chazelle took control and kept working to achieve his final goal. I so respect the notion of a young filmmaker creating, as opposed to waiting.

Whiplash is Chazelle’s first feature, but you certainly can’t tell by watching the film. The movie’s swift cinematography and brazen editing deserve endless praise. The film’s look gracefully and consistently changes between cold detachment and warm intimacy, a juxtaposition that proves to be utterly compelling. Editor Tom Cross, clearly taking cues from Martin Scorsese’s longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, cuts the film into a frenzy. With each frantic montage, I feared the movie was on the verge of slipping away. But it never did. Although the film’s tempo rarely rests, the tone of the picture is always in full control.

You’ll have to forgive me. I haven’t done a very thorough job of describing the film’s plot, mostly because I’m more interested in explaining why I think a movie is technically good as opposed to what a movie is about. Chazelle has said that when he wrote Whiplash, he followed the same structure of an inspiring-teacher film, except in his movie, the teacher was a complete monster. But because Chazelle and Simmons created said monster, they inadvertently made a film that all but demolishes the clichés of its genre. Whiplash is a thrilling and refreshing character study of what happens when natural genius is tortured to the edge of extinction. I first saw the movie weeks ago, and I haven’t been able to get the tapping of its flawless final scene out of my head since. A-

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