Whiplash

The Academy Award nominations for Best Picture were announced yesterday.  Since I usually try to see all  of the nominees (see my reviews for The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, and The Theory of Everything), I went to Whiplash last night.  I knew that this film had generated a lot of buzz at the Sundance Film Festival last year but I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.  It is amazing!  J.K. Simmons gives a tour de force performance and he currently has my non-existent vote for Best Supporting Actor!  Andrew Neiman (the equally amazing Miles Teller) is a first year student at the Shaffer Conservatory, the best music school in the country, as a jazz drummer.  As he is practicing one night, Terrence Fletcher (Simmons), who conducts the most prestigious jazz group on campus, hears him and invites him to join the group as the alternate drummer.  Fletcher is unbelievably harsh and repeatedly berates him, throws things at him, slaps him, forces him to play for hours on end, and brings in a less talented drummer to replace him in an attempt to push him to be great.  When Fletcher pushes him too far, Neiman attacks him and is expelled from Shaffer.  Eventually, Neiman is asked by the parents of a former student of Fletcher's who committed suicide to formally complain about his treatment and Fletcher is fired.  Later, Neiman happens to see Fletcher playing in a jazz club and they have a conversation wherein Fletcher tries to justify his behavior.  He then asks Neiman to play the drums for a performance he is conducting at Carnegie Hall, telling him that the group will be playing the same songs he played at Shaffer.  However, in retribution for getting him fired, Fletcher has the group perform a song Neiman doesn't know which causes him to play poorly.  Humiliated, Neiman plays an epic drum solo which finally gains the approval of Fletcher (and the spontaneous applause of everyone watching the film).   This movie is intense and Simmons is truly monstrous as Fletcher, begging the question: at what cost is greatness achieved?  The music in this film is incredible and I loved all of the close shots of the various drums and cymbals on the drum kit.  It is a great movie and I recommend it.