Aight hol up hol up. New favorite movie in town. I stumbled across this while going through the IMDb top 250 list (that’s where I’ve started on my quest to find good movies), and the plot seemed simple and rather exciting. A young drummer in the most prestigious of music schools makes for a very interesting premise. I will be honest, I had no idea about Miles Teller before this. It was J.K. Simmons name that drew me into the movie and I remember seeing an analysis of a scene from it on a random YouTube video a couple months ago.
So yeah, I watched through the film and oh. my. GOD. It’s phenomenal from start to finish. It’s tight, explores and develops on the characters and relationships well, and does not ever feel slow. The cinematography, shots, lighting and colors are all fitting for the theme of the film. Whiplash had a short film on YouTube before it got green lit for a full feature film, and when you compare the differences between the scene from that version and the one from the full length film, it highlights all the creative choices and reasons the team made in a single scene.
The first scene is highly lit with standard white walls. There seems to be a lot of natural light, and it makes the setup feel like an amateur or low-stakes music band. Contrast that with the scene on the right from the final film. It is brimming with yellow light all over, and you can notice the lack of any natural or white light. Shadows are utilized much better as well to create a nice visual for the viewer. The second scene oozes a high pressure environment that you’d see at a top level music school. All this just from lighting and colors. This color palette is in use for most of the film, the use of yellows, greens, blacks with a hint of red here and there. It makes for a very moody and dramatic rendition, and I’m all here for it.
But even though everything about the cinematography is exceptional, my highlight for this film is 100% J.K. Simmons. Take a bow. Or take an Oscar rightfully so. His performance blew me out the water. Never have I been this drawn and my eyes glued to the screen as they were when Simmons was on screen. His character isn’t just a one dimensional demanding mentor, but there’s so many layers to unpack with him. When he’s angry at Neiman, you’re on the edge of your seat panicking for him. All the scenes where he looks out for him seem positive and rather healthy, but over time you see him abuse the information he has and manipulate the people around him with it. I don’t think there’s a lot of people who’d twist the reality about their former students killing themselves into a different manifestation, but that’s Fletcher for you. JK Simmons absolutely stole the limelight in this movie.
(I do want to say Miles Teller did a fantastic job in the movie. He had a splendid performance as well, but Simmons was just different gravy.)
And everything that led to the final scene. The climax. Oh it is so well done. The story of a horrible abusive mentor doing his best to find the next Buddy Rich, the story of a young man who gave up on his dreams of becoming the next Buddy Rich. Their symphony, and the story told through just music as they go from rivals sabotaging each other to producing something truly exquisite. And the best part is, there’s no victory here for Nieman. No matter what he does, he’s screwed. His actions here are so meaningless that they end up making his decisions all the more powerful. And Fletcher’s initial disbelief at Nieman disobeying him, shifting to a level of respect and admiration for both his student and himself over the course of the music.
Whiplash is sublime to say the least, and it is very refreshing for me to see a story end on a note where there simply was no victory. Says a lot about life I suppose, and maybe that’s a lesson I need to learn right now – You don’t always win. Not everything can be transformed into a pseudo victory. Sometimes, you lose. That’s it.