Whiplash (2014)

[JohnnY]

This gave me a weird feeling...

 

The teacher was a total dick, no question about it, he thought that mentally abusing people was the only way to make them improve. But I don't think the movie tries to justify his behaviour, the final scene in which he tries to destroy Andrew's future (and no, he doesn't look like he's just testing him again) shows exactly why he's a bad person.

 

But then you have Andrew... And I saw you guys comparing this movie to TSN and Black Swan. But on TSN, the main character ends up unfulfilled, right? He's rich and famous, but he lost his best friend and his girl, the last scene (Mark waiting for Erica to accept his request on facebook) is basically saying that one man's obsession can eat him from inside and destroy all the things he cared about. And Black Swan was basically trying to show us that there's no perfection, Nina just becomes insane and in the exact moment she achieves perfection she falls bleeding on the verge of death.

 

So, what about Andrew? He's obsessed about getting famous, he doesn't want to be remembered by his friends, he's ready to step on other people in order to make his talent recognized. I do believe the movie starts to criticize his behaviour (he tries to get back with the girl, but she doesn't care about him any longer) but then we reach the ending and I started questioning myself... Is he still obsessed about being the best? Is he ruining everything he has in order to be someone big? 

 

And is this truly inspiring? It wasn't for me. Yeah, I wanted Andrew to realize he was becoming an unstable maniac. You could say that the abrupt ending is leaving the answer for the audiences, but the movie was far too much of "uuuh i wanna be the best" and too little "I'm overdoing it" to inspire this conclusion. This may sound weird, but I loved when he got hit by the truck, it was like "see how you are becoming blind to everything that happens around you? How you are being enslaved and corrupted by your own dreams?" but everything that followed from this moment to the ending didn't seem to me like a reaffirmation of this scene.

 

65/100

Edited January 21, 2015 by JohnnY

[Goffe]

this movie is coming to a theater in my city, so fucking happy

[Jake Gittes]

I don't find it all that inspiring. Guy's had his moment of glory, and will probably have some more, but in the long run he's fucked up.

[Goffe]

Guy's had his moment of glory, and will probably have some more, but in the long run he's fucked up.

but that's what so great about it, the obsession will fuck his life in the long run.

 

 

Where do you think these two go after this movie ends? They had a moment at the end of the film, but I feel these two will always hate each other.

I think so. I think it’s definitely a fleeting thing. I think there’s a certain amount of damage that will always have been done. Fletcher will always think he won and Andrew will be a sad, empty shell of a person and will die in his 30s of a drug overdose. I have a very dark view of where it goes.

Read More: ‘Whiplash’ Director Damien Chazelle On The Alternate Ending | http://screencrush.com/whiplash-damien-chazelle/?trackback=tsmcli

 

Edited January 23, 2015 by Goffe

[Jake Gittes]

Not sure why you seem to be arguing with me, cause I couldn't agree more. I quoted that same interview on the previous page.

[Blankments]

I loved this movie, so instead of a typical review, I’m going to give it a “write-up,” as it would’ve made my top five of the year if I made my list a bit later.

 

Whiplash is a fascinating intricate movie. It’s got a lot of thematic depth to it for what’s essentially a gritty Karate Kid remake set in music school. Before I get into that though, I wanna talk about the performances: mainly, Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. Teller is astounding in his role as Andrew, giving a breathtaking physical performance. The only movies I saw Miles Teller in before this were Project X and Divergent, so yeah, you can guess how surprised I was by this performance. The guy has chops, and the movie actually lives and dies by his performance, which is subtle enough but still great. That said, J.K. Simmons is getting all the praise for his performance, and rightfully so. A terrifying man, Fletcher is a force of nature that still has human aspects. One scene that stuck out to me was him talking sweetly to a five-year-old girl before entering and commanding his band. It’s a tour de force performance, one that’s rightfully getting all the awards this season. It’s just a shame that Teller was looked over.

 

But no matter. It’s time for me to do my hinted at “analysis of a single scene” that tells what Whiplash is truly about. I suppose that might be overselling it a wee bit; I guess a better way to word it is “the scene where Blank became personally connected to the material.” LEGO had this with the ending twist scene, Birdman had it with the Times Square cue miss scene, and Boyhood had it too many times to list. Where did Whiplash fall with this? Well, it’s a scene that’s being frequently called unnecessary, where Andrew defends (and douchebags his way through an offense) his drumming profession. It’s a sad fact of the world that the pursuit of physical and intellectual means has often been given higher priority over the artistic. After all, these activities are much easier to be analyzed, going off of brute strength or facts being memorized. Artistic professions such as drumming, or in my personal experience, acting, are often looked over as trivial since it’s hard to judge them. However, as Andrew points out, this is not true. There are strict guidelines for drumming, much stricter than football or Model UN. I’d argue the same that my time in Speech, although with subjective judges, had pretty strict guidelines that I adhered myself too. This is what makes it more emotionally tied to it.

 

However, there is more themes being expressed in this scene, themes expressed better and subtler in other scenes of this movie, and in fact, addressed in some other movies of 2014 (The Fault in Our Stars comes to mind). However, Whiplash addresses it more head-on than those other movies: is the need to be remembered and become immortalized more important than anything else? I’ll admit, I myself have grappled with this thought. I want to be remembered in the future, but eventually, all will fall to oblivion as time progresses. The average person doesn’t even know who invented the television for God’s sake. That said, I’m not going to dwell on this theme; I’m not Augustus Waters’ whining about myself. I will say this though: Whiplash addresses the negative part of this line of thinking better than any movie I’ve seen. We see Andrew close himself from the outside world more-and-more throughout the movie, until at the end of the movie, his calling up his ex-girlfriend is merely an after-thought in the grand scheme of the whole movie.

 

The last theme I want to address is the theme best established by Fletcher’s now infamous line, probably the most famous line in Whiplash’s legacy so far: “There are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job.” Whiplash is about tough love on the way to greatness, and just how far should it go. Does Fletcher take it too far? Arguably, yes, but Andrew has achieved his goal by the end of the movie, and so has Fletcher, so honestly, if you’d ask the two of them by film’s end, Andrew probably agrees with Fletcher’s philosophy. More importantly though, this is true in real life, but not often expressed in cinema. You ask me last year, “Well, Blank, what makes you want to improve at acting the most?” You may think I’d answer “I want to constantly improve myself.” But that’s a lie. The truth is, the reason I’d want to become better is to prove the assholes in my life that think I’m a failure wrong. That is what drives Andrew the most: he wants to prove Fletcher wrong, and say, “Look at me. Look at me. I’m the best drummer now.” When Fletcher is proved wrong at the end, Andrew wins, and so does Fletcher’s idea of teaching.

 

Now that I’m done doing as best an analysis of themes as I can do (and given it a much longer write-up than any movie on my best of 2014 list), I’m just going to talk about one thing: Damien Chazelle’s direction. Holy shit, was he snubbed. The film is framed like a thriller, even though the subject matter and script is most definitely not a thriller. That said, I just really love Chazelle’s direction, and I want to point a specific thing with camera work and editing I love.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnuImW1dWAk

 

Notice how, a minute into the clip, after Fletcher throws the chair at Andrew, the camera movements change. Suddenly, we have an unsteady profile close up on Andrew, alternating with shots of Fletcher which are totally shakey and uneasy. We get into Andrew’s frame of mind with the erratic camera movements, as he is totally off-kilter with Fletcher’s first blow-up. And then, my favorite shot of the movie, at 1:20 of the video, with Fletcher walking up to Andrew. It’s a simple shot, but utterly terrifying with the seemingly-random-but actually well-choreographed with Fletcher’s steps bounces. This makes Fletcher larger than life with just a few camera movements. Then, removing camera movements, for the rest of the clip, whenever Fletcher slaps Andrew, we, as audience members, feel each slap Andrew does thanks to lack of any music and Fletcher staring at Andrew intensely.

 

Chazelle’s direction is felt throughout the whole movie. Only this directing style can make the sudden car crash on the way to a competition feel natural. I also have commend Chazelle and Tom Cross for the editing in this movie. Much has been said about the climax, about how it makes you feel like you are Andrew throughout the whole thing, remaining incredibly tense for something that is merely instrumental. The final shots of the film are shockingly cathartic. That said, I want to talk about a different scene’s editing, namely, when Andrew leaves Schaffer, this is intercut with scenes of him meeting with an attorney who wants to get Fletcher out of Schaffer. The jumps from Andrew packing up his dorm to wondering if he should really sell out Fletcher are remarkably well-done, as we can follow Andrew’s thought-process with the attorney by cutting to the immense sadness of his expulsion from the college. The whole film is remarkably well-edited.

 

Honestly, I think Whiplash is the type of movie that can have a book be written on it. There’s a lot of themes going on here, and a lot of film theory that can be dissected (and I’m only in my second semester of film school, so who knows what an actual film scholar could tackle with it). As it is on its own, it’s an immensely entertaining film, bolstered with great performances, intricate themes, fantastic direction, and some of the best editing I’ve ever seen. I will certainly be catching it in theaters again, and after a single watch, Whiplash is one of my favorites of 2014. A+

[Deep Wang]

I feel like I'm really late to the party, but I just got out of this and man, that was pretty fucking intense.

[Olive]

Might be my favorite of BP nominees. 

[Chriss]

Best movie of 2014.

[CJohn]

I absolutely believe during the whole final scene I didn't breathe. Such intensity. Amazing movie that left me speechless. 

Edited January 31, 2015 by CJohn

[Jake Gittes]

Stood?

[solaris]

I have nothing to add to this thread that hasn't been mentioned already (far more eloquently than I could ever put it too), but yeah, I loved this. Best of 2014 and one of my favourites of the past few years. JK Simmons is incredible (obviously) but I thought Teller was just as good. I don't think I've been so completely hooked into a film for a long time. Can't wait to see what Chazelle does next.

[Travod]

I went into this thinking I was going to hate it. Can't really explain why, but whatever. 

 

Anyway, it was pretty damn great.

 

Supporting Actor, Editing, and Sound Mixing. That's what I'd give it.

[Alpha]

I've seen a lot of thrillers, featuring scenes that keep me on the edge of my seat. Scenes like "cutting the right wire to defuse the bomb before it's about to explode" or extremely tense hostage negotiations. Yet none of those movies literally kept me scared shitless as Whiplash did. It is, without a doubt, the BEST movie of 2014.

 

A+

[4815162342]

Another one gets seduced by the tempo

[CoolioD1]

they're all dumber than you numbers. you're the only one who can see it for what it is. well done.

[4815162342]

they're all dumber than you numbers. you're the only one who can see it for what it is. well done.

 

No need for the snideness

[Hatebox]

Great to see an indie that lived up to its hype. Pulls you in from the first frame and never lets up until the credits.

 

I also liked that the film can be interpreted as a tragedy.

[Ezen Baklattan]

they're all dumber than you numbers. you're the only one who can see it for what it is. well done.

You're going for Sassiest Member Award at the 2016 Boffies, aren't you?

[JohnnyGossamer]

This thread is beginning to emulate vitriol in the movie... Not my tempo.