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Comments 1 - 15 of 61

lachyas's avatar

lachyas

Turn my pages, bitch.
9 years 3 months ago
ChrisReynolds's avatar

ChrisReynolds

Amazing cinematography, editing and acting from the two leads, but the direction the plot took at the end felt really wrongheaded, conflating drive with talent:
spoiler
9 years 1 month ago
fraukamera's avatar

fraukamera

All you have heard about this movie is true. It really is THAT good. Just fucking watch it, already.
9 years 4 months ago
Ebbywebby's avatar

Ebbywebby

The raves for this film absolutely stun me. I put off seeing it because the premise and the trailer's "vibe" set off all kinds of alarms, and darned if I didn't react exactly as I feared. This is one of the most ridiculously heavy-handed films I've seen. Almost none of it rang true for me, and I *did* have an infamously nasty music teacher during high school (and in an utterly bizarre coincidence, his *first* name was Fletcher). But he wasn't like *this* silly ape, calling students "hymie," "faggot," "cocksucker" and the like, while expecting to hold onto a job at a prestigious school just because he's such a remarkable genius at getting a crew to play with a steady tempo?? While never having a word to say about dynamics, accents, interpretation, etc. What an eyeroll. And that ridiculous drum solo at the end would have pushed half the house into the lobby to grab a drink. Hey, how about one more scene showing the drummer's righteously bloody hands? You can't have too many. Oh, and from the moment Fletcher walked into class looking upset with that burned CD, I assumed one of his ex-students spoiler. Given the level of subtlety the script had established by that point, what else could it be? About the only development that wasn't as nuanced as a cymbal crash was spoiler. At last, a measured dose of realism.
8 years 8 months ago
woodsmoke's avatar

woodsmoke

Drummer version of Rocky
9 years 2 months ago
The_Comatorium's avatar

The_Comatorium

Wow.

Fucking WOW.

I have only clapped at the end of one movie(which was this year…Boyhood), but now I can say I clapped to two. I couldn’t help myself. The theater couldn’t help itself. Whiplash was that good. I turned to my friend with absolute glee and shouted “THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME”. I was, and still am, completely blow away by this film. The plot is simple. Andrew (Teller) is an aspirin jazz drummer in the most prestigious school in the country. He is hand picked by Terrence Fletcher (Simmons) to join his competition band comprised of some of the best musicians in the county. While there are a small amount of secondary characters including the return of Paul Reiser, the film mainly focuses on the relationship between Andrew and his teacher; a relationship that grows more volatile by the second.

There just isn’t enough to say about this one. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that doesn’t let up from the starting drum roll to the final curtain. I was captivated the entire time. I’ve had experiences with all the parties involved. I saw Chazelle’s first film “Grand Piano” earlier this year and found it to be entertaining but ultimately forgettable. Miles Teller broke onto the scene with his role in “The Spectacular Now” but is mostly known for his college party films such as “21 & Older and Project X”. JK Simmons is a a brilliant character actor who was perfectly cast as Jonah Jamison in the Spiderman films and always delivers an interesting performance. All three combine to give the highlights of their careers in this film. Teller is remarkable. He completely sells Andrew’s strive to be the greatest drummer the world has ever seen. He is passionate, dedicated, and driven. Simmons is a force of nature. It is, without a doubt, the performance of the year so far. He dresses in all black. His face is stone cold and the boom of his voice is thunderous. Not even the smallest mistake makes it past his ears and of you don’t fix it on the next try, you’ll be sorry. The things, never was anything he did, no matter how terrifying, ever over the top. Simmons played Fletcher with a frightening sense of realism that will notch him into the lists of greatest villains of all time. This thing was full on psychological horror film for most of its running time, and I couldn’t get more of it.

The films writer/director, Damien Chazelle, knocked this out of the park. The editing was perfect. The pace was perfect. The dialogue and story were engrossing. There was symbolism in the cymbalism. The sound design was amazing. The music was amazing. The man has made a perfect film. It’s always a good thing when as soon as the credits begin to roll, I want to go out and buy a ticket to the next showing. The final 20 minutes was one of the most batshit emotional tornado I’ve ever experienced. In minutes I was on the verge of tears to almost jumping out of my seat with excitement. His script is uplifting, scary, and ambitious. It tells the story of people who try to be the best and try to get the best out of people. If you have EVER been REALLY REALL good at something, this film will show you just how much you have to go.

I just…can’t, say enough about this film. I know this review is kind of short, but I really just can’t talk about this film in too much detail. I’ve noticed that most of the films I review that I consider fantastic pieces of film, have short reviews. I want you guys to experience these movies with a general idea of what to expect but to still be blown away by completely unexpected events. This film is not a masterpiece. This film is like your grandma’s cooking. It may be lasagna, but there isn’t a thing you can find wrong with it or a thing you would change. I can’t wait to see this again. I can’t wait for it to be released in more theaters so others can experience it.

Fuck it. This is my film of the year. So earned. It was just my fucking tempo.

5/5

www.thoughtsfromthebooth.com
@booththoughts
9 years 4 months ago
blimpsnstuff's avatar

blimpsnstuff

The movie is an interesting watch, but its message is irresponsible and idiotic, and for a "jazz" movie, it doesn't get jazz at all.

Case in point is the Charlie Parker story. The drummer didn't throw a cymbal at Bird's head, he threw it at his feet. And he didn't do it because Parker was playing badly, he did it because Parker was playing non-traditionally, going way off the chart and doing his own thing; in other words, doing precisely the thing that made him a legend.

This Tiger Mom fantasy doesn't seem to understand that just being able to play lightning fast in perfect time doesn't make you a great musician, it makes you a biological mp3 player. One of the reasons 'jazz is dying' is that mainstream jazz is largely boring, meticulous Marsalis Lincoln Center Xanax for corksniffers instead of something creative and exciting. There are tons of Juilliard and Berklee products out there today on Andy's level, and no normal person knows or cares who they are, because the sterile reproductions of sheet music they call jazz appeals to nobody.

Cinematography slapped, tho.
4 years 5 months ago
Blocho's avatar

Blocho

In grad school, I had a mentor who was emotionally abusive. There was nothing redeeming about the experience.

There are so many things about this movie that I dislike that I'm not going to bother trying to explain any of them. I will just post the two most insightful articles I've read about this movie.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/whiplash-getting-jazz-right-movies
https://ethaniverson.com/rhythm-and-blues/the-drum-thing-or-a-brief-history-of-whiplash-or-im-generalizing-here/
7 years 6 months ago
jhhayes's avatar

jhhayes

J.K. Simmons definitely earned his Oscar. He was born to play this role. One of the best film characters of the past 20 yrs. His performance was even better than I expected. Miles Teller also deserved some love from the Academy. Just an all around awesome film.
8 years 8 months ago
Lumen's avatar

Lumen

great acting, but the plot is not good and uses an overdose of cliches in a movie that didn't need them...
I loved the energy and passion, and the story invites to discussions about how to reach your potential, human dignity and utilitarism.
I like the movie, I like to disagree with it
9 years 1 month ago
sourcreampudding's avatar

sourcreampudding

Vern Schillinger teaches jazz. Terrifying.
7 years 8 months ago
ynrozturk's avatar

ynrozturk

Good movie but for crying out loud... no drummer bleeds like that.
9 years 1 month ago
Zolex's avatar

Zolex

For the last five years, I've just had this feeling that for some reason or another, this wouldn't speak to me. I always wanted to see it, but I never found the right time, and whenever it would come up, I told myself to do it another time because it felt like I would end up disappointed because of all the hype around it.

It's funny how your gut feeling can be so right. Sure, it's a great move. Sure it's great acting. Sure, it's great cinematography. Sure, it's great sound editing. It's an overall pretty good movie, but the story and character development just never connected with me. It's just a psychological drama that doesn't pushes the inner conflict far enough, and given that this isn't a biopic, there's no incentive for me to care, because why would I when the lead has no character development besides drumming faster, bloodier and sweatier? There are better dramas out there. But I like jazz though, so that's nice.

Meh. If you haven't seen it by now, just get it over with it. Or don't. If your gut feeling keeps telling you that this might not be for you, maybe switch over to the series section of Netflix instead.
4 years 3 months ago
Reira-chan's avatar

Reira-chan

Bloody brilliant!
7 years 2 months ago
Sarahx30stm's avatar

Sarahx30stm

Absolutely, without a doubt a great film. Watch it on a big screen with good (and loud) speakers to experience it at its best.
7 years 9 months ago

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