The price of perfection

Whiplash  by Damien Chazelle     ★★★

Andrew (Miles Teller) is a young, ambitious drummer who aspires to become as good as the legendary jazz icon Buddy Rich. A freshman at a prestigious conservatory in New York, Andrew gets the opportunity to improve his musical skills under the guidance of the renowned, flamboyant conductor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). Fletcher, however, takes no prisoners. Demanding to an almost sadistic extent, Fletcher makes his young pupils practice until their fingers bleed, while criticizing and insulting them in a way that would make even the hard-boiled British top chef Gordon Ramsay blush. Fletcher's relentless, often humiliating approach, whereby he also plays his students off against each other, pushes Andrew to the limit...

Miles Teller as Andrew.

Pygmalion

Based on his own eponymous short film, the American director and screenwriter Damien Chazelle made Whiplash into a fascinating psychological drama about ambition, the love of music, perseverance and the toll of perfection. What is the price of perfection? How much sweat, blood and tears is a man willing to pay to achieve his ambitions? To impress his family? To be remembered by later generations and to become, if it were, immortal? To mean something to others? And to himself? For Andrew, no price seems too high. Even if this means rubbing his classmates and his new girlfriend the wrong way. Even if his life is reduced to endless, almost unbearable rehearsals to avoid the wrath of the cruel and virtually impossible to please Fletcher. In that regard, Andrew reminded me of the devoted dancers Victoria and Nina in the ballet films The Red Shoes and Black Swan; also tragic characters who suffer under the pressure from a merciless Pygmalion and make great sacrifices for their artistic passion.

Tense as a drum skin

J.K. Simmons (left) and Miles Teller.

Whiplash (the film is named after a complex composition by the American jazz composer Hank Levy) focusus mainly on the tense, dynamic relationship between Andrew and Fletcher. Director Chazelle made good use of the first-rate performances by Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. Teller is an excellent drummer, which contributes to the credibility of the film. But it is Simmons who impresses the most as the unpredictable and manipulative Fletcher. It earned him an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.

Editor Tom Cross also deserves a thumbs-up. His clever montage of the musical scenes is suspenseful enough to almost taste Andrew's determination and fear of failure, making Whiplash a gripping movie that often feels as tense as a drum skin and comes very close to a thriller.

JN.

Whiplash - USA - 2014.

Cast: Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons.

Genre: psychological drama / music