James Canellos ‘17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons in Whiplash. Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Classics.
It’s drilled into a college student’s head that achieving your goals will be hard, strenuous work. There are going to be a million people just like you trying to obtain the same career. Pursuing a career in the arts is not helping your chances, so you must ask yourself: how far are you willing to go? What makes you a true artist? Director Damien Chazelle knows the answer to that question after turning Whiplash into a short film to secure funding for the feature adaptation. In his directorial debut, the line between motivation and abuse become more difficult to make out as a talented 19-year-old drummer, Andrew (Miles Teller) is pushed to the limits by his drill sergeant-like music instructor (J.K. Simmons).
Much like a more unhinged Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Andrew tucks away any effort to socialize, instead choosing to lock himself in a room and play his drum set until his fingers and palms are gushing blood. He’s beating away through existence, preferring to die at 34 with nobody in his life as long as he’s talked about. Like Andrew, Teller pushes himself to new heights in what is his best performance to date. He reassures viewers that his carefree and sensitive performance in The Spectacular Now was no fluke, and cements his status as one of the most exciting young actors working right now. Miles Teller in Whiplash. Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Classics.
Molding Andrew from a meek pile of clay into stone is Simmons at his scariest. He commands the audience’s anxiety in the same fashion his character does with his students. A single hand gesture is more than enough to get your heart racing. He’s the deadliest kind of serpent, the kind you can’t keep your eyes off even as he spews venom right at you. Like Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) of Full Metal Jacket, his slander is meant to inspire his pupils to reach their full potential and not let their talent go to waist. “There are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job’” he says at one point to Andrew. Despite all the insults and vulgar language that explodes from Simmons’ mouth this line summarizes him accurately. A master manipulator, who uses his own guilt and anger to diminish anyone who disrupts his temp music.
Chazelle has concocted a truly original thought provoking piece that makes us question how much pressure we allow to be put on ourselves. By turning something that could be self-expression into self-destruction, Chazelle delivers a gripping and unexpected psychological drama that demands to be talked about. The finale is nothing short of perfect, along with its two leads who duke it out until the music dies down.
