Whiplash (2014)

★★
Whiplash is a great film and does everything right until it is nearly over. It makes a fatal error at the 11th hour and completely upends everything that came before. That is a shame, because there is so much to like about writer/director Damien Chazelle's searing drama of musical mayhem. The acting is phenomenal. The dialogue is sometimes over the top in a way that was pleasing to my ears. The jazz numbers come at you like they were fired out of a cannon. This is a gripping and powerful movie up until the moment Chazelle changes the dynamic between student and teacher. Instead of a hero who defeats his archenemy, we get a hero who validates his archenemy's methods. I don't know if Chazelle meant to do that or if he just completely lost track of his set up and its logical payoff. I don't regret seeing this. I'm almost tempted to recommend it to everyone in my orbit. The movie's high audience and critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes are not lost on me. I wonder why so few saw what I saw.

Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) attends the Shaffer Music Conservatory to ply his passion for jazz music and hone his skills on the drums. One night faculty member Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) spots Andrew practicing alone and invites him to try out for his studio band. Andrew learns quickly that Terence is an abusive instructor with a quick temper and little patience for mistakes. He isn't above tossing objects around the room and hurling insults at whoever falls short of his demands for perfection. Andrew quickly feels the pressure. At his most agonizing moments, he is banging away at his drums with bleeding hands and forehead sweat falling on the cymbals. His relationships suffer. He successfully asks out the cute theater snack counter worker Nicole (Melissa Benoist) and then cruelly breaks up with her when his devotion to his music takes priority above all else. His father Jim (Paul Reiser, whom I didn't even recognize) tries to console him, but Andrew is determined to push himself to meet the high bar set by his teacher.

Terence's wrath is so great that we anticipate his volcanic temper at the slightest mistake. When Andrew is late for a competition, we understand the consequences. Terence plays games to push his students harder. He recruits an underachieving drummer and praises him to belittle Andrew's superior performances. We reach the eye of the hurricane when he announces the death of a former student due to a car accident. This student, Shawn Casey, had the ambition to succeed. Terence recognized it when the rest of the staff wrote him off. Shawn graduated and moved on to great things. We feel the loss in Terence's words. For once, he shows feelings other than anger. This is a moment that the narrative will revisit later, and how the narrative revisits this revelation is crucial to the movie's success. Whether Damien Chazelle knew it or not, he left a milestone marker for us to recall when Terence Fletcher finally gets put under the lights for his day of reckoning.

Whiplash has moments of raw emotion that are unleashed in furious outbursts by both Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. What a shame, then, that Chazelle couldn't carry this heavy load across the finish line. We learn that Shawn Casey's death was not as Terence described it. We arrive at a conclusion about Fletcher that is not detrimental to the story. In fact, this development could have led to a powerful battle of wills between student and teacher. Andrew could have defeated his nemesis, but he instead elevates him in a manner unearned due to his deception. The movie confirms the rationality behind Terence's tactics because Andrew will become the great drummer he wanted to be. This ignores the circumstances behind Shawn Casey's death. What I'm saying is that the current ending works if Terrence's news of Shawn Casey's death was accurate. If the news is not accurate, then the current ending doesn't work because Terence's methods aren't worth it for what he's trying to accomplish.

Varsity Blues (1998) comes to mind. The head football coach in that movie walks off the field in disgrace due to a takeover by his players. His actions included ignoring the health impacts of tackles to the head and racism against a black player. His ouster was the real victory for the team. Whiplash sets up Terence Fletcher as a ruthless villain in the same vein as Jon Voight's coach Bud Kilmer but redeems him despite his tyrannical approach. Correct this oversight, and the movie works. This could have been one of the best films of the year. The music is amazing. The acting is stellar. The psychological war games between Andew and Terence are as intense as any cinematic battle between the world's superpowers. Miles Teller gives his finest performance to date, while J.K. Simmons gives us his Jonah Jameson turned up as far as the dial will go. He's magnificent. Don't blame either of these actors for the movie's ultimate failing.

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