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Whiplash poster

CAST
MILES TELLER
MELISSA BENOIST
JAYSON BLAIR
PAUL REISER
J.K. SIMMONS
AUSTIN STOWELL

WRITTEN BY
DAMIEN CHAZELLE

PRODUCED BY
JASON BLUM
HELEN ESTABROOK
DAVID LANCASTER
MICHEL LITVAK

DIRECTED BY
DAMIEN CHAZELLE

GENRE
DRAMA
MUSIC

RATED
AUS:MA
UK:15
USA:R

RUNNING TIME
106 MIN

WHIPLASH (2014)

Blood, sweat and jazz ferociously intertwine in the terrifically intense Whiplash.

The film opens with the sound of a snare drum increasing its tempo like a ticking bomb, in what can only be described as the perfect audio cue to a film where perfection is attained through breaking point.

As written and directed by Damien Chanzelle, the confident and thrilling Whiplash features two of the year’s best performances from Miles Teller and especially J.K. Simmons, who play student and teacher at a prestigious music conservatory where the classroom becomes a psychological and physical battleground for supremacy.

Indeed, J.K. Simmons terrifying performance as feared and respected instructor Terrence Flecther is one of those monstrous once-in-a-lifetime turns that will haunt viewers for days. As he dispenses with some of the best and creative insults heard since the days of R. Lee Ermey’s drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket, viewers won’t know whether to laugh or cry while shaking in their boots at this imposing figure in black who takes on gargoyle-esque features in the right light.

For Miles Teller’s impressionable and driven jazz drummer Andrew Neyman, Fletcher is both teacher and torturer, a cult-like figure whose psychological and even at times physical barbarity is forgiven, as long as the end game is to be the best.

Where Simmons’ torturer provides the fiery momentum, it is Teller’s disciple/student that is the main focus, and boy oh boy does Teller deliver a physical and psychologically exhausting performance, filled with impressive musicianship as the pounds the skins like a man obsessed.

Where music sequences in most films are moments of joyous, toe-tapping, soul fulfilling celebration, the music sequences in Whiplash are battles of will, thrillingly staged and executed with an incredibly tense air that’s made even thicker at the anticipation that one mistake can conjure hell.

Chazelle has created a film that demands a physical and emotional reaction. It sucks us right into this battle of wills, and the fleeting triumphs and emotional scarring that is a result of it.

Just like its title suggests, Whiplash thrashes us around and leaves us dazed and dazzled at this collision between master and student, powerfully portrayed by two great actors who deserve every kudos coming their way.

****
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