Review: Whiplash

Andrew (Miles Teller) has one goal: to be one of the greats. The young jazz drummer's all-consuming, single-minded focus is nurtured by Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), the star instructor of the top-ranked Shaffer Conservatory of Music. The mesmerising Whiplash examines the nature of that nurture.

Feared and admired, Fletcher eschews encouragement in favour of emotional and physical lacerations. "There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job,'" he intones and so he spurs on his students with intimidation and invectives. In an early scene, he halts the rehearsal, there's someone out of tune. Identify yourself, he demands, isolating each section until he singles out one cowering student who confesses to be the culprit. After ejecting the player, Fletcher coolly informs the class that the student wasn't out of tune, but he didn't know if he was or wasn't and that's crime enough.

Andrew, a first-year called up by Fletcher to serve as an alternate, is given the opportunity to be a core player. His nerves are calmed by Fletcher, who asks about his parents (his mother left when Andrew was a baby, his father a failed writer now high school teacher) and tells him to relax, he'll do just fine. Once inside the classroom, Andrew takes his position, Fletcher instructs the rest of the band to start under tempo to ease in the newbie, and they begin. Fletcher seems happy - "We got Buddy Rich here," he comments, referring to the man once billed as "the world's greatest drummer" - but then stops the play to point out an error. Andrew resumes playing for a couple of beats before Fletcher holds up a closed fist - "Not quite my tempo" - a couple more beats, closed fist, "You're dragging," a couple more beats, closed fist, "You're rushing," a couple more beats, closed fist, dragging, rushing, dragging, rushing, until Andrew's nerves are all but shredded with the verbal and physical assault. The single tear that rolls down his eye relights Fletcher's tirade, which now includes taunts of his father's failure and his mother's abandonment.

Yet Andrew does not buckle. He wants Fletcher's approval, he wants to be a core player, he wants to be one of the greats. He practices until he blisters and bleeds and beyond. Teller, who taught himself how to play drums at 15 and underwent two months of intensive training for the film, more than convinces in the drumming scenes. Not only does he deliver an impressive physical performance, but he also skillfully constructs a portrait of a young artist willing to sacrifice everything for his passion. Andrew is as ruthless as Fletcher - when Fletcher brings on another drummer and praises his perfect playing, Andrew promptly breaks up with the girl he's been dating, reasoning with brutal pragmatism that she's an obstacle in his quest for greatness.

It's heartening to see Simmons, long a reliable presence in the supporting trenches, step into the spotlight. Fletcher is monstrous but you can't keep your eyes off him, so charismatic and incendiary is Simmons. His villainy knows no bounds - if you take a step back and divorce yourself from the dynamic portrayals given by the two leads, certain actions will strike you as implausible and almost cartoonish. Still, the reaction of horror they elicit remains undiminished.

Writer-director Damien Chazelle has done a superb job - the script is lean, the direction confident. Strange as this may seem, scenes feel cut on the diagonal - there's a rhythm in the splicing that feels in tune with what Chazelle is intending to achieve. Compare it with Get On Up and Jimi: All Is By My Side, where the aim to recreate the rhythms of James Brown and Jimi Hendrix respectively was a disservice to their stories.

For all its percussive propulsion and often noirish compositions, Whiplash is less about jazz and more about the extreme drive and dedication - and the inherent loneliness - required to climb that steep mountain to perfection. What will it take, how far are you willing to go, and will it be worth the blood, sweat, and tears?

Whiplash

Directed by: Damien Chazelle

Written by: Damien Chazelle

Starring: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser, Melissa Benoist