It’s officially Fall and that means it’s officially our Cinema Society’s prime season. Now begins the cavalcade of Oscar-worthy movies fresh from festivals in Venice, Sundance, Telluride and Toronto. And what a crop this year’s entries appear to be. I keep reading about the films and their performances and can’t wait to see them all.
In the meantime, I got an early look yesterday at the Sundance Audience Award winner: “Whiplash.” If you asked me if I was keen to see a movie about a young jazz drummer and his taskmaster teacher, I’d probably pass. Soooo glad I didn’t. This one’s a winner.
From the studio:
Andrew Neyman is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher, an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man’s life. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability-and his sanity.
That’s a simplistic summary of the story and makes it sound like “Black Swan,” substituting jazz music for ballet. It’s not over-the-top-horror like “Black Swan.” It’s a suspenseful, almost thriller-like tale with a performance by J.K. Simmons that astounds. Everybody knows Simmons as the cuddly, laid-back dad in “Juno” or the bland pitchman in the State Farm commercials. Apparently, he was a bad guy on the now-canceled TV show “Oz,” but I never saw that so watching him in “Whiplash” was a revelation. If he doesn’t get into the Supporting Actor race, I’ll be gobsmacked. Miles Teller, who plays the kid, is very good too. According to writer-director Damien Chazelle, who came for a Q&A and reception after the film, said that the young actor did have drumming experience but was coached in certain techniques for the film and ended up being so adept that they only used the stunt double sparingly. The drumming sequences in the film are worth the price of admission, so kudos to Teller.
As for Chazelle, he’s not one of those ultra-arty young filmmakers who has to shoot everything with a hand-held camera, thank God. He’s a student of classic films and it shows. His closeups and angles are terrific. I talked to him at the party and he’s a really humble and down-to-earth too.
Bottom line: I highly recommend this one.