Whiplash

“Whiplash” (Sony Pictures Classics 2014)
Director Damien Chazelle
Starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons

There are not many film reviews in this site because there are not that many great films about jazz. Of course, there are documentaries, biopics, teaching videos, jazz as background music, but almost no films that get into the inner, demanding dynamics of jazz. Unlike most jazz films, which often end up records of performances or historical fact-listing, “Whiplash” goes right into the pain of jazz.

The story concentrates on an aspiring 19-year-old jazz drummer, Andrew Neiman, enrolled in a prestigious, but demanding, music conservatory. He is taken from second-seat page-turner to the main chair by Terence Fletcher, a big band teacher whose methods of instruction seem to come from a marine training camp. Fletcher starts to work on Andrew, pumping up his ego, then deflating it mercilessly. He senses Andrew’s promise, but believes he needs to push him to see it fulfilled.

Fletcher pushes Andrew, and hard. He demands “my tempo,” starts and stops the musicians at certain points in the score, and rehearses them until all resistance is overcome. Whether Neiman will get past the one “unmanly” tear he sheds, the blood on his hands from practicing too hard, and the sweat that covers him and his drum kit becomes the center of the story.

There is a love interest subplot, where Andrew gets demoted to “second chair” after his obsessive focus alienates his girlfriend. There is a family element, where his father is there, but always supportive. And there is plenty of advice about playing jazz and the full display of how hard it is to acquire even the basic competence to play. Pursuing jazz is shown to have real human consequences.

There is critique of the lack of ambition in America and how expectations are lowered by accepting mediocrity. Fletcher tells Andrew that the two worst words in English are “good job.” Those words are the way that averageness takes over and virtuosity gets derailed, he says. Andrew has to decide, ultimately, whether to drop out, become Fletcher’s clone, or find his own way in jazz.

Though the film plays with standard tropes–the fine line between madness and greatness, the obsessive drive of the true artist, the authoritarian teacher-pupil dynamic, and the climb to success at great personal cost–the scenes of the film feel fresh and deeply considered. The film’s tone is nicely understated, with plenty of silence and plenty of music in between the sharp dialogue, which becomes the articulation of emotion.

Anyone who has ever tried to interview a jazz musician knows they can be remarkably quiet about what they do. “Whiplash” gives visual, dramatic expression of what too often goes unsaid, both good and bad. It gets so many things right, that the wrong things, like Fletcher’s physical abuse and the lack of camaraderie, can really make you cringe. But, sticking with the good, there is a lot that works in the film.

The film does a good job, something like Spike Lee’s great jazz film, “Mo’ Better Blues,” of portraying the personal side of jazz. We sympathize with Andrew’s drive to succeed, and become increasingly repelled by Fletcher’s abusive, boot-camp teaching methods. But then, our sympathies reverse, and we can see how Andrew’s ambition is damaging and isolating, the cost of succeeding really does seem too high, and we start to understand how despite being a total asshole, Fletcher’s need for finding, or creating, the next Charlie Parker is somehow a noble quest.

The Charlie Parker story of Jo Jones throwing a cymbal at the young Parker, thereby embarrassing him into woodshedding for long enough to become the most brilliant jazz musician ever, becomes the rationale for much of what Fletcher does, and for much of why jazz is such special music. As Andrew gets closer to success, and then falls from grace, we see how the path to greatness is never straight and always steep.

With the inclusion of snippets of recordings and images of Buddy Rich, Andrew’s personal hero, we see how such ambition can be damaging, and have to consider how geniuses simply do not fit into the normal patterns of everyday life. The film never takes a false step in examining the film’s characters and never provides any too-easy answers. The film, like all great films, raises more questions than it answers. And it raises the right ones.

Will the film make jazz more popular? I hope so, and I am sure most jazz lovers will find themselves explaining jazz to those less jazz savvy friends who see the film. However, the film also does a slight disservice to jazz by making it appear less accessible than it really is. The listeners are nothing but dark shadows in this film. The action is all on stage and the practice room. Jazz lives in a lot more places than that.

The film’s honest approach might inspire many young people to work harder at honing their craft, expanding their understanding, and surviving setbacks. Andrew eventually survives, but he does it on his own terms. But it might also turn off a lot of young people, and their parents, who will think jazz is just too hard to master. Hopefully, the film will help rid jazz of the actuality, or even the image, of the needlessly harsh, brutal approach Fletcher embodies. Fletcher’s character ends up an exaggeration, though, like all villains, an intriguing one.

The film reveals the drama behind the music and shows how jazz is intense music made by very intense people. Like it or not, Andrew and Fletcher’s conflict is the core dynamic of creating jazz. The film clearly exposes how jazz still comes out of struggle, for individuals, as it did historically and culturally as a cultural art form. But the nice plot twists at the end show that the human element is also essential to achieving anything meaningful.

A complex, nuanced film like this captures well the complexity and nuance of jazz. It deserves repeated viewing for the abundance of ideas and insights the film offers up, in a credible and compelling way, about jazz and jazz people.