Whiplash (2014) Movie Review

Director: Damien Chazelle

Writer: Damien Chazelle

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

I don’t want drums! I want pictures of Spiderman! I think that joke was great. Mainly because there is one, very lazy joke still in circulation about this film and it makes me want to shove two drumsticks into my eyes. One each of course. Whenever someone says, ‘not quite my tempo’, and thinks that that makes them a funny human, I want to attack them. I bet there’s even a review out there that uses it

as a funny little ending even though it’s probably irrelevant. I actually found a user review on IMDb titled, ‘Just My Tempo’. Do you think you’re funny? Do you think that not everyone else thought of that and then cringed their skin off? You know what no one thought of? A Spiderman joke. Truly the most original thought to date.

Drumming! Drumming! Drumming! This film is about drumming. More specifically, a drummer called Andrew Neiman who wants to be the best… he wants to be remembered. On his path to the top he meets a band conductor, Terrence Fletcher, who is a ruthless, unrelenting asshole. Andrew wants to play the drums so well and so fast that he magically earns the respect and admiration of his conductor. In doing so, blood flies everywhere.

First off, I would like to get out of the way, the only thing I took issue with in this film. That is the drumming. I am not saying that the film shouldn’t have had drumming, (although that would be funny) it was the sounds that were coming out of the drums that ground my gears. I suppose the idea may have been to make it seem like Andrew (or his rivals for that matter) was just so good at drumming that even when he didn’t hit the drum it would make a sound. I am not sure if it was an issue with syncing the audio or if the sounds just didn’t fit the action. A lot of the time, half the drum kit would be slightly out of frame so that you couldn’t see how all the sounds were being made. It really had a jarring effect but this problem wasn’t too prevalent so we’re all good. Also I find it hard to believe that you can get much better at the drums by just hitting them really fast. I also saw it as a much more rhythmic skill but who am I to judge.

Okay, almost the entire rest of this film is bloody marvellous. While the audio of the drumming sequences could sometimes be jarring, my lord, the crazy stuff Miles Teller does with his hands is mesmerising. Even if he is just pretending to make the correct sounds, it certainly looks impressive and like I mentioned, I really wouldn’t know if what he is doing is actually correct. The way these sequences are shot is also incredible, particularly in the final scene. You see the cymbal being smashed and all the sweat flying off. The best shot in that last scene is one where the frame is alternating J.K. Simmons’ conducting and the drums like a tennis match. Like I say… bloody marvellous.

The relationship between Neiman and Fletcher is the focal point of the film. Because of this, there is an excellent, liquid nature to it. It is never the same for five minutes. At first Neiman is looking up to him, then he feels like they are friends and then he absolutely resents him. This makes the plot highly unpredictable and tense. This relationship’s importance is compounded by the fact that all the other ones he has are peripheral to him. He absolutely resents everyone in his family. “Teacher of the year? Get out, mate! I play the drums the drums really fast,” is what I wish he had said to his father at the dinner table… he was definitely thinking it though.  He also thinks of his girlfriend less than drumming. Even when he makes a move to reconcile their relationship, his mind leaps straight back to the drums.

Whiplash is a film that I regret not seeing when it was initially released. Needless to say, I thought it was fantastic; the tension, the cinematography, the yelling. It is about as high octane as a drumming film can get and it is stylish as all hell. Style Hell.

Whiplash receives a: 10/10