'Whiplash': What the Critics Are Saying

5:30 AM PST 10/10/2014
by Ashley Lee
http://bcove.me/ndscbjza
Whiplash, out Friday, follows an aspiring jazz drummer who is berated by his performing arts professor. The Sony Pictures Classics music drama, which began as a short and quickly became a film festival favorite, is loosely based on writer-director Damien Chazelle's high school band experiences and pulls on Miles Teller's rock-band drumming and J.K. Simmons' classical music training, but mostly aims to ask the question of whether the talent worth the torment.

Read what top critics are saying about Whiplash:

The Hollywood Reporter's chief film critic Todd McCarthy writes that the film "is about the wages of all-out sacrifice and commitment; it may not endorse Fletcher’s utter ruthlessness (the man clearly has emotional and psychological issues that are not dealt with here), but nor does it take a soft-headed, blandly feel-good stance; as Fletcher cuttingly remarks at one point, the lamest two words in the English language are, 'good job.'" Though there are some practical question marks about its ending, it "confirms Chazelle as a notable talent." Its "early rehearsal scenes are grippingly portrayed" and "the music track is full of riches."

Watch more Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons Drum Up Hard Hits in New 'Whiplash' Trailer


Of the two leads, "Teller, who greatly impressed in last year’s Sundance entry The Spectacular Now, does so again in a performance that is more often simmering than volatile," and "for his part, Simmons has the great good fortune for a character actor to have here found a co-lead part he can really run with, which is what he excitingly does with a man who is profane, way out of bounds and, like many a good villain, utterly compelling. That said, the character is only taken so far in the writing; from Iago onward, there is often a latent or frustrated sexual impulse behind such malignant behavior, as Fletcher indulges in here, but none such is suggested, nor is any private life indicated at all."
read more: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/whiplash-review-what-critics-are-739461