![]() These classical techniques to convey a sense of speed, while certainly not inventive, are very effective in visualizing the texture of drum performance. ![]() Not only does Chazelle employ fast cutting to match the tempo of the drums, but he also does a lot of camera shaking and jump cuts between medium shots, close-ups, and extreme close-ups. ![]() The power of the film’s music is further strengthened by the editing. As the credits start to roll, drumbeats still lingering in ears, audiences can feel an almost physical exhaustion as if they had just been drumming for 106 minutes themselves. The young star has been playing the drums since age 15, and to play this character, he took three drums lessons a week, each three hours long. Every drum performance in the film is powerful and mesmerizing, and even more so when one learns that they are all delivered by no one but Teller himself. While the story and acting may be enough to make “Whiplash” a good film, it’s really the music that sets up its greatness. His rampageous scoldings are no less striking than those of the officer in “Full Metal Jacket,” and in “Whiplash,” these scoldings serve one more purpose: keeping the fast pace and high energy level of the film. Simmons is best known as the foul-mouthed newspaper editor in Sam Raimi’s “Spiderman” trilogy, and in “Whiplash,” he seems to have completed a Ph.D. Teller, a rising prince of independent films, gives a memorable interpretation of a musician who sacrifices his entire life for his instrument. Teller and Simmons’s performances might not be as good as that of Heath Ledger, but like the latter, they explore their respective extremes in the most immersive and violent way. To get a clearer picture of this effect, one can think about The Joker in “The Dark Knight”: he is definitely one of the most two-dimensional characters in the last decade but is nevertheless one of the most impressive because he really reaches the pinnacle of evil. However, the simplification of the characters helps the film save time on exploring character depth and leave more space for dramatic conflicts, which is absolutely a fair sacrifice. He gives up his family, his friends, and even his girlfriend to seek perfection in drums, and his secret competition with his conductor eventually becomes a full-blown battle.Įven just glancing at the storyline, one can tell that the two main characters are rather two-dimensional: one is designated with the stereotype of ambitious and devoted young artist, and the other should be added to the Oxford English Dictionary as the definition of the phrase “mad teacher.” There are definitely moments when Fletcher’s teaching becomes too extreme and one starts to wonder whether the director was actually fond of his college experience. The hero soon becomes depressed but also starts to practice harder and harder, partly because of his thirst for greatness and partly because of his desire to take revenge on his ruthless mentor. To achieve this, Fletcher uses the most primitive and (what he considers) most effective approach: a comprehensive methodology of shouting, swearing, and beating. However, he soon finds out that Fletcher is a psychopath obsessed with pushing his players beyond each and every artistic threshold. Simmons), the legendary conductor of the school’s orchestra. ![]() A promising young drummer named Andrew (Miles Teller) enters the nation’s most prestigious music school and is thrilled to have his talent recognized by Fletcher (J.K. The plot of “Whiplash” is simplistic: it is essentially a story of only two characters.
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