Review:
Whiplash
is a great character drama that also asks interesting social questions about
the cost of achieving greatness.
The film is about Andrew Neyman,
a young man who aspires to be a master jazz drummer, and his teacher Terence
Fletcher, a man who pushes his students past what is reasonable in the hopes of
them finding greatness. Neyman is enrolled in a top music school with the hopes
of being asked to join Fletcher’s school band. When it finally happens, Neyman
realizes that is going to be very hard work; and not only that, he will have to
succeed in spite of Fletcher’s extreme verbal and psychological abuse.
Whiplash is a crowd pleaser,
built on excellent performances from its two main stars. Writer-director Damien Chazelle
based the film on his own experience as a young jazz musician, but the film
pushes things quite a bit farther.
It is clear that Chazelle loves
jazz music, as it plays a central role in the film. The music is really the
soul of the piece. Jazz is one of the more elegant and creative forms of music;
and yet, it is now more of a fringe style in terms of its popular appeal. The
film is not going to change that, but it does seem to breathe new life into the
genre – at least for the non-initiated. The music has so much life and power –
a lot of that, however, does go hand-in-hand with the audience being behind
Neyman and wanting him to succeed. Whiplash and the HBO drama Treme
are the only two recent pieces I can think of to really do the genre justice.
Caring about Neyman is a key factor to
Whiplash working. When he is first presented, he seems like an average kid. He
has a good relationship with his dad, but is from a broken home. He has a crush
on a cute girl named Nicole. And, he wants to be a jazz drummer – a really
great one. He is willing to work incredibly hard to realize his dream, as the
audience is introduced to him frantically practicing his drumming. This also
gets the attention of his school’s top jazz teacher, Fletcher. Neyman has no
idea what he will actually have to do to succeed under Fletcher, who is
absolutely awful to him, abusing him severely (as well as everyone else – the whole
class is terrified of him). Neyman’s treatment at the hands of Fletcher seems
to endear him to the audience even more. We are horrified by Fletcher’s
treatment of Neyman; thus, we sympathize with Neyman and hate Fletcher.
But this is when Chazelle does
something every interesting with the character of Neyman. He seems like a good
kid when we first meet him, but as he takes all this abuse from Fletcher he
starts to change, becoming a bit of an asshole himself. He is rude to his
family, dismissive of his father (maybe even looking down on him as a failure –
which is also echoes of how Fletcher describes Neyman’s father), and breaks up
with Nicole (who he has begun dating) because he is going to be great and she
will only hold him back. Neyman is burning bridges because he thinks Fletcher
and Fletcher’s attitude are key components to his success as a drummer. He needs
to adopt the same persona, while also working incredibly hard, to be great, as
Fletcher is clearly great in his eyes. Fletcher to some extent is like a god
figure, ruthlessly smiling or smiting on those deserving – only through him,
however, can salvation be reached.
Chazelle does another very
interesting thing with the story. Neyman is pushed so far that he cracks and
attacks Fletcher, ending with him being expelled from school and giving up
drumming. Some time passes when Neyman sees Fletcher performing at a local bar.
He goes in to watch and Fletcher see him. Fletcher too has be let go by the
school for mistreating students. He asks Neyman if he would be interested in
joining his new band made up of professional musicians to perform at the
upcoming Jazz Festival. Neyman agrees, which seems insane, but he clearly still
holds Fletcher in high regard. Neyman practices for the show and even gives
Nicole a call to invite her, but she has a boyfriend now. He feels remorse
about missing his chance with her. It is a brief reminder of what Fletcher took
from him (or in some way forced him to give up), but he still has this great opportunity
to play in front of jazz music’s elite. The day comes and to Neyman’s devastation
he realizes that he has been set up by Fletcher to fail. He has learned and
practiced the wrong songs. Neyman has a moment in which he contemplates giving
up, but instead comes back and upstages Fletcher and in fact reveals himself as
a brilliant drummer, not only winning over the band but also Fletcher too.
What is really interesting about
this is the question it asks: would Neyman have become the drummer he is in the
end without Fletcher pushing him as hard as he did? The film seems to argue no,
echoed in the story that Fletcher tells about a famous jazz musician who had a
symbol thrown at his head because he played poorly only to come back later as a
master. This story mirror’s Neyman’s own. Do the ends justify the means?
Without the verbal and psychological abuse driving Neyman to get better and
better – to practice and practice until his hands bleed – he would not be the
master he is in the end. Yet, we hate Fletcher. His treatment of Neyman is despicable,
unforgivable and unacceptable; but without it, Neyman would not be the same
drummer. It is a difficult quandary.
The film does not really take a
position of whether Fletcher is right or wrong. The audience can let themselves
off the hook by claiming the Neyman persevered in spite of Fletcher’s awful
treatment, but that is not true. He becomes the musician he is because Fletcher
pushed him so hard. Chazelle wants to challenge his audience to ask themselves
if they believe that the ends justify the means. It is a difficult question.
Especially, when Chazelle presents the case of another musician that Fletcher
taught. He pushed him just as hard as Neyman and he became a great musician as
well, but he could not deal with the psychological abuse and depression. He ultimately
took his own life. We want to applaud Neyman for his achievement, but that goes
hand-in-hand with applauding Fletcher’s tactics, which seems impossible because
we just spent the entire film hating everything about him.
This is probably what makes
Whiplash so compelling. Yes, the performances are very good and the music is
presented in such a way that for about two hours we are all jazz fans, but it
is this big question that Chazelle asks that sticks with us long after the film
concludes.
The juxtaposition between
Fletcher and Neyman’s father Jim is also interesting. Jim is a very loving and
supportive father who looks out for his son and wants to protect him. But if
Neyman had gone with his father after Fletcher had set him up and embraced him,
Neyman would have never achieved his dream. Jim is the antithesis of Fletcher in
almost every way. Jim is a good man and Fletcher is not; yet, Jim is presented
as a failure and Fletcher a success. With his father, Neyman would have failed
but with Fletcher he becomes something extraordinary. Here again, Chazelle
creates an interesting wrinkle to how we as a society think about the way
people should behave, and the possible consequences of that behavior.
Whiplash does everything very
well when it comes to telling its story, especially regarding its main
characters; however, Chazelle is almost completely focused on Neyman and
Fletcher, everything else is just sort of background. Neyman’s father Jim is
hardly developed (they watch movies together and Jim cares about his son). The
same is true of Nicole, who is basically introduced solely as something Neyman
must give up to succeed under Fletcher, but their relationship nor her
character are developed so it does not feel like a loss for the audience. We
just think that Neyman is acting like a bastard, modeling the behavior of his
teacher. It is more about the change in Neyman than the loss of the
relationship (which means nothing to us). It is not until later that we are
told that losing Nicole actually means something to Neyman, but it is too later
for the audience to really care. The cost of Neyman wanting to be a great
musician is undercut by the lack of Nicole’s character development or the
development of the relationship. There are also plot details that are whisked
over, which do not matter in the big picture of the narrative but still nag on
the overly observant, possibly taking some viewers out of the story. For
example, near Neyman’s breakdown he is in a rush to make it to a show. He is running
late and is afraid he will lose his spot in the band (one that he worked so
hard for). He gets in a car accident, because he is in too much of a hurry. It is
a pretty bad crash, but Neyman crawls out of his car and can still walk. He
flees the scene to try and make it to the show. There are no consequences to
this scene or this choice. That is completely unrealistic. There are Neyman and
Fletcher, everything else in the film is treated as background noise, only
brought to the front when it is convenient for the plot or characters. The
problem is that as a result these moments and/or characters do not mean much
when suddenly in focus.
Fletcher, to some extent, is also
merely a Walt Disney or comic-book villain. He is played so big and so evil
because Chazelle wants the audience to hate him. The whole film relies on this.
Chazelle still tries to humanize him, however, showing him get choked up when
he talks about the musician he taught that died and showing him act like a
normal nice guy when he sees a friend of his and the man’s young daughter.
These moments fall flat and add nothing. He is really nothing more than a villain
who we hate. That said, however, it is interesting in the final few moments
that there seems to be a real bond, an absolute love of the music and what
Neyman and Fletcher can accomplish together, that takes over, as if these two
have put the past behind them and have moved forward as friends with equal
respect for each other’s talent. We were shown for the whole film how awful
this man is, but he is seemingly forgiven. There is a bit of a disconnection,
especially in terms of him being presented as a storybook villain of sorts
(which usually means irredeemable).
The film, which plays a bit like
a fantasy piece in many ways, despite it taking place in the real world,
suddenly wants to change tones and genres. Neyman’s struggle to become the best
while Fletcher tortures him is presented in such an extreme way that it does
feel heightened, like it is a nightmare. Yet, suddenly, the end wants to be
happy with Neyman and Fletcher reconciling. The audience is left applauding,
but also uneasy. If this were a fantasy, Neyman would have succeeded and Fletcher
would have been exposed as the evil man that he is, but instead the film
decides to return to reality where nothing is black and white, but grey. No one
is really completely good or evil. This is an interesting choice by Chazelle,
but it also leaves the film feeling incomplete in some way. Where is Fletcher’s
comeuppance?
Whiplash, as said above, is a
crowd please. The third act will have you cheering. The performances are also
top-notch. What is probably its best attribute, however, is that it asks
difficult questions. Now, it is up to the viewer to engage with these questions
or just happily applaud Neyman in the end without questioning the cost.
Technical,
aesthetic & acting achievements: Damien Chazelle has directed a
short (which this is a feature length remake of) and a micro budget feature,
but this film is his breakthrough as a director – winning both the dramatic
Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The
same can be said of his ability as a writer. He is an exciting young talent who
already has some upcoming projects penciled in. I look forward to seeing his
next film, the musical drama La La Land.
Composer Justin Hurwitz
composes a good score, supporting the dramatic moments well. The soundtrack of
jazz classics that are performed by the band in the film take center stage
musically and do overshadow Hurwitz’s score, but he still delivers good work
that is essential to the overall dramatic resonance of the film. Sharone Meir’s
cinematographer is also very good, especially in the third act. Chazelle uses a
lot of extreme close ups to detail the pain and determination on Neyman’s face,
as well as his isolation. Meir’s photography captures these moments
wonderfully. Melanie
Jones’s production design grounds the film in reality. Everything looks as
it should – more so than most films. It looks as if the film was made on
location in real dorms rooms, broken down apartments, music practice rooms, and
so on.
The film features strong
performances, but really only has two characters. Everyone else are relegated
to the background without much to do or development of any kind. Paul Reiser
plays Neyman’s dad Jim. He comes across as caring and loving towards his son,
but he is mostly used as a narrative devise and not a character. The same is
true of Melissa
Benoist’s Nicole. All she is really asked to do is to make us understand
why Neyman might like her, and she does that well. J.K. Simmons
gets the fun role of playing Terence Fletcher and he goes big with it, which
works perfectly. He is not an amazingly well developed character either, but
Simmons makes him feel real even while playing him like a bit like a comic-book
villain, which is a testament to his great talent as a character actor. Miles Teller
is fantastic in the film as Andrew Neyman. Teller puts everything he is into
the role, making Neyman’s pain his own (he also really is playing the drums).
It is one of the better performances of the year (which has a lot of good work,
especially among leading men).
Summary
& score: Great performances, great music, a wonderful third act, and
big social questions, Whiplash is a very good drama. 8/10
