Whiplash (2014)

This terrific story of a driven young jazz drummer pushed to the limit by his abusive teacher is not something to see if you need to relax. The performances are outstanding and the movie is starting to bring in awards (Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance and more). Miles Teller (last blogged in The Spectacular Now) is incredible as the single-minded Andrew and J.K. Simmons (most recently in, appropriately, The Vicious Kind) terrifying as the mercurial conductor Fletcher. Paul Reiser (perhaps best known, and certainly most awarded, for 162 episodes of Mad About You (1992-99), he was also wonderful in Diner (1982), My Two Dads (1987-90), Bye Bye Love (1995), One Night at McCool's (2001), The Thing About My Folks (2005), and "the old guy" in Married (2014--now on hiatus but renewed for a second season)) lends a warm touch as Andrew's caring father.

Here's my personal Paul Reiser anecdote. A close friend of my mother's was close friends with Florence Stanley, who played the judge on My Two Dads, and I dined with her several times. At an Italian restaurant in London, England, in the 1980s, I saw Reiser holding court with a group of about ten people. I walked up to him and said I was a friend of Flo's and a fan of the show. He couldn't have been nicer. Earlier this year I met him again here in the heartland after his stand-up comedy show, but didn't try to remind him of the story because I was with someone who actually knew him personally and they had only a minute or two to catch up in the book-signing line. Still nice, though.

Fletcher is inspired by a band instructor who terrorized director/writer Damien Chazelle (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, which we didn't like, was his first feature and this is his second) and the school is supposed to be a blend of Juilliard, Eastman, and Lincoln Conservatory. We have a completely different view of Chazelle now!

My heart pounded with adrenaline for Andrew, combined with the jumpy (and excellent) editing, the occasional wild camera moves (motion picture motion sickness, or MPMS, sufferers, sit in the back), the high energy big band numbers, and my musician's knowledge of the difficulty of the rhythms, including 14/8 (the title track) and 15/8. Teller and Simmons do their own playing (Teller took a lot of extra lessons before shooting), but all the other musicians are pros. My preferred jazz forms are vocals but the music in this is first rate. Most of the songs are written by Justin Hurwitz, Chazelle's classical-piano-trained friend from their days at Harvard, and they collaborated on Guy and Madeline. Tim Simonec, conductor and/or orchestrator of 98 other projects and composer of 12, contributes a few songs as well. You can listen to the entire 54 minute soundtrack on Spotify via this link (with commercials). Or watch this 5 minute youtube video for a taste.

Glad to report that we're on the same page with Rotten Tomatoes: 96% all around. Join the choir and see this before the Oscars.