Whiplash directed by Damien Chazelle

By far my favorite movie is Whiplash directed by Damien Chazelle, released on October 10, 2014. Being filmed in three different locations all in California: Santa Clarita, Los Angeles, and the Orpheum Theatre. Still being budget at an estimated $3,300,000. Having casted: Miles teller (Andrew Neimann), J.K. Simmons (Fletcher), Paul Reiser (Jim Neimann), Melissa Benoist (Nicole), Austin Stowell (Ryan), Nate Lang (Carl Tanner), Chris Mulkey (Uncle Frank), and Damon Gupton (Mr. Kramer). The amazing part about this movie to me is that it was shot in only nineteen days. The movie was based from Chazelle point of view as a jazz drummer about a dramatic fear of missing a beat.

Andrew is enrolled in one of the toughest music schools in the country. Fletcher realizes Andrews potential to be a great jazz drummer, pushing Andrew to the extreme. Andrew doesn’t realize that he would be push to his limits and would have to choose either a normal college life or risk it all to be one of the greats. Casting J.K. Simmons for Fletcher was a great pick from Chazelle. Simmons as Fletcher made it believable with the vulgar name calling on all of his students, psychological and physical treatment. A great scene was when Fletcher threw a chair at Andrew, asking him if he was rushing the tempo or dragging. Fletcher told Andrew to count in fours, once he reached to four Fletcher would slap him every time. Fletcher did this multiple times until Andrew had an answer embarrassing him in front of the entire studio band. Then Fletcher breaks Andrew down by saying he is worthless good for nothing son, no wonder his mother left him as a child, saying he was retarded because Andrew said the beats by mouth instead of playing it on the drum set. This along with other great scenes of fletcher shows how far he would go to show a student the potential he saw in them, as one could say with unorthodox methods.

Miles Teller played Andrew Neimann the youngest jazz drummer to be in studio band as an alternate. Teller had some musical background in jazz but on saxophone and self-taught in drumming. For his role as Andrew Neimann, Teller had to practice about three to four hours a day to play the songs in the movie like whiplash and caravan. Not only was Teller actually playing all the drum parts but even his blood was on the drum set. In some scenes Teller had wounds that were bleeding a lot and would continue through the pain. In one scene Andrew knew that he was on the road to greatness, close to the edge that he is willing to leave family and his girlfriend to get where he wants. This mentality came into play by Fletcher psychologically.

In an interview Damien Chazelle said once he had Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons to play Andrew and Fletcher. He would just have to cast everyone around those two characters. Not only were there some casting of celebrities but most of them were either played by real musicians or student musicians. Chazelle wanted to give his vision of what a jazz musician had to go through in college. Even though he didn’t like the methods his instructor had he realized something in the end which was the main plot of the movie. The road to greatness can take you to the edge, this was the plot between Fletcher and Andrew which had a great ending. The ending even though Fletcher try to end Andrew career in jazz, Andrew turned it around. With the ending smile from Fletcher and Andrew, leads back to how the road to greatness does take you to the edge.

As from an audience point of view with some musical background it was great all around. Showing how musicians practice and strive to get to the too pro be recognize by a high instructor. Even if someone is not musically knowledgeable they get a glimpse of music and jazz. In my opinion it was a great music movie that I have seen in a while with a real feeling of dramatic feel to it. Not being in jazz classes shows me what I may expect or feel to an extent, even though its not complete true. But this movie gives you this feeling or expectations on how a real jazz class would be in a cut-throat music school. Whiplash is one of my all-time favorites no matter how many times I watch it feels like I am watching it again for the first time.

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