What does it take to become a great artist, and are there right and wrong ways to go about achieving that greatness? When does a teacher-student relationship cross the line from mentoring to abusive? Is the greatness achieved, once the injuries both physical and mental are tallied up, worth the suffering? Those questions lie at the heart of director Damien Chazelle's gripping indie drama Whiplash.
Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) is a freshman student at the Shaffer Conservatory of Music, with his mind set on joining the school's illustrious studio band, led by legendary instructor Terence Fletcher (master character actor J.K. Simmons). Fletcher has a reputation for forming world-class jazz musicians out of the students who enter his world — or ruining the musical aspirations of those who can't meet his expectations.
Andrew impresses Fletcher enough during an early-morning drum practice to be plucked out of his class and given the chance to sit in with the studio band. His excitement gives way to fright, as he becomes not only the subject of his teacher's personal attacks but the target of his thrown chairs. Simple group practices become marathon 12-hour sessions as Fletcher's drill-instructor-like teaching methods break Andrew down both mentally and physically; his sweat and blood pour like rain onto the drumhead.
While Simmons' Fletcher is the showier role, Teller's performance here finally justifies all of the praise that has surrounded the young actor since his starring turn in last year's The Spectacular Now. Although his role as a high school student on the fast track to alcohol addiction won accolades, he has followed it up with nothing but supporting roles in gross-out teen comedies and first chapters in franchise hopefuls. His commitment to making Andrew as unlikable as possible — coldly informing his girlfriend his commitment to drumming is more important; goading family members into arguments over the dinner table; choosing Fletcher's insane father figure over his own well-meaning dad — shows true acting courage, and is a decision that lesser talents of his generation would've had a hard time following through to the end.
After his script for last year's criminally underseen Grand Piano, writer-director Chazelle (who made his debut with 2009's resourceful black-and-white jazz musical Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench) shows he has unlimited promise in the world of thrillers aimed at adults. Loaded with more tension and intensity than a slasher movie, Whiplash delivers a primer for producing a great film: create meaty roles, let underutilized talents sink their teeth into them — then stay out of their way. The end result mirrors the relationship at the movie's core: However brutal the process was, it resulted nonetheless in art.
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