All that Jazz - Whiplash Review

Year of release : 2014

Director : Damien Chazelle

Cinematographer : Sharone Meir

Cast : J.K. Simmons, Miles Teller, Melissa Benoist

Genre : Drama

The road to greatness is never easy or pretty and as said by Joseph Wirthlin, "Desire, Burning desire is basic to achieve anything beyond the ordinary." This is portrayed beautifully in the 2014 drama 'Whiplash' directed by Damien Chazelle. The desire and grit of Andrew (played by Teller) to become one of the greatest jazz musicians in the world and the abusive and demoralizing conduct of his band leader Fletcher(played by J.K Simmons) is the base of this film.

The movie starts with a beautiful track in shot with Andrew practicing his charts in the Shaffer Conservatory. Right away, Chazelle brings in Fletcher into the equation and voila!, we understand the character dynamics between the two. From the first scene, the director puts Andrew in the spot. Miles Teller's brilliant drumming in this film, is commendable yet sometimes, it seems the hits don't match the audio. The direction of the characters are done quite well, especially with the help of camera angles and postures of the characters. Talking about the desire and grit, Andrew Neiman gets into the studio band and starts playing under Fletcher, where he is thrown right under the bus by Chazelle.

The stature of Fletcher and his abusive character is not all antagonistic in the film. J.K Simmon does justice to Fletcher, both physically and on an emotional level. Fletcher's constant search for the next Charlie "Bird" Parker proves his vulnerability and his fear of not finding him/her ever. So, the big, bad drill sergeant of Shaffer, actually has the most to lose. The character equation of Andrew and Fletcher is kind of similar to the Batman and the Joker. Fletcher is the perfect antagonist for Andrew. Fletcher pushes him beyond his boundaries to the point, where he loses everything and Fletcher is the reason, Andrew thinks about playing drums again just before the climax.

The philosophy of Andrew is different, yet ambitious. Being socially awkward and not seeing the need to make any friends, he never had any distractions. For the first time, the narrative awards Andrew with the confidence to ask out Nicole(played by Benoist), just to make him let her go. The hunger for greatness completely engulfs him. After becoming the core drummer of Fletcher's band, he is still challenged by Fletcher and is asked to earn his spot. It is astonishing to watch, the degree of determination Chazelle put into Andrew's character.

The film throughout has beautiful images. The cinematographer's use of different camera angles to establish character dynamics and the flawless editing of Tom Cross makes the film even more remarkable. Apart from the startling characterisation, Chazelle's choice of colour of the costumes is to the point. Throughout the film, we see Fletcher in black, empowering his abusive antagonistic trait and we see Andrew in rather lighter shades signifying his powerlessness. The shades of shirt get darker and darker as Andrew gets closer to Fletcher depicting the rage and frustration he rallies up in the process of satisfying Fletcher, that never happens.

Images : Top Left - Andrew, the first day in studio band. (Light coloured shirt)

Top Right - Andrew almost saturated with Fletcher's tyranny and abusiveness. (Dark Grey-ish T-shirt)

Bottom - Andrew Challenges Fletcher and proves his GRIT. (Black Shirt) - This signifies they both are on the same page now.

This film is all about Jazz music, yet it feels like a war movie. The band conductor feels more like a drill sergeant and the drummer/protagonist feels like a private. The climax of this film is a nail biter. The way, the character of Andrew is progressed, he stops giving f***s about anything and stands tall for his ambitions after getting humiliated by Fletcher at the JVC festival. He proves the fact that he is the one Fletcher was looking for, because he won't get discouraged. The toxic relationship of Fletcher and Neiman isn't something you would want with your teacher, but there is something beautiful underneath the abuse and toxicity and that is the desire. The desire of Andrew to be great and the desire of Fletcher to find the next Bird.

Whiplash is a brilliant piece of modern cinema and can be classified as a classic. The brilliant performances by J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller take the film to another level. The toxicity is a harsh reality in the world of art. You can't be great unless you have your fair share of struggle, grief, heartbreak and de-motivation. We all see the same thing in Imtiaz Ali's Rock-star too, where Janardhan becomes Jordan after he loses the love of his life, Heer. When the jazz is done, all you have is a beautiful piece of art by a visionary director and probably the best performances by his actors making you wonder, well, who took the folder? or what did Fletcher say in the end?

Rating : 4.5/5

- Siddharth Padhee

Everything-Film

24-05-2020

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