Whiplash

Wow. Just wow. This movie is technically fantastic. The editing is so sharp, every scene feels relevant to the characters, I love the use of color. I like how they use green repeatedly in various ways: envy (jealousy in getting a spot in the Studio Band but also Andrew’s envy at his cousins getting attention for their achievements but not him), disgust (the band players at each other, internally, and at Mr. Fletcher), evil (shadowing a character’s downfall such as Tanner always wearing green). Miles Teller does a really good job. You can feel the hunger from him as Andrew, desperate to be one of the great drummers. He plays until he bleeds and literally played 5 minutes after getting into a car accident. He is centered and recognizes he cannot commit to anything else, including Nicole, although he tries to win her back but fails (at least from what we know). The star here is JK Simmons as Terrence Fletcher, the ruthless conductor. The amount of skill it takes to portray someone this terrifying is astounding. We see his kindness to the public and moments of kindness toward Andrew, only to weaponize it and turn it against Andrew consistently. He pits Andrew against other drummers for hours upon hours and is unapologetic for his teaching methods. The way he is able to so quickly switch his seemingly chill, calm personality into someone screaming at a level 10, throwing chairs, etc, is crazy. I like the ambiguity of the ending- we don’t even know if the audience approves, just Mr. Fletcher does- and I guess that’s all that matters. Andrew has gone past the point of no return and Mr. Fletcher got the star he always wanted.