Hello dear reader. I need to start by facing up to a problem. Over my recent blogs I have been extolling the virtues of various actors that seem to be trying to raise the bar, when it comes to talent and performance, so high that you'd need to pop down to your local B&Q (other D.I.Y. stores are available) and buy yourself a sturdy stepladder to even get close to them. First came Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game playing Alan Turning flawlessly. Then up popped Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything playing Steven Hawking better than the man himself. Then Steve Carell decided to get in on the act playing John Du Pont in Foxcatcher. A character that takes verbal intimidation and the premise that money and the power that comes with it are really not the best of bed fellows. Now apart from the fact that these three roles are about real people they have nothing in common apart from the brilliance of the acting and the quality of the script. My problem is that J K Simmons may have just pulled the rug out from underneath all of them.
Whiplash tells the tale of a young drummer Andrew Nieman, played by Miles Teller. Nieman has managed to land a place in one New Yorks best and most cut throat music schools, Shaffer. Nieman is a focused and driven young man. He spends hours practicing and is determined to be remembered as a music great, if not genius and not to slip away into the annals of ambiguity and banality. There does not seem to be a sacrifice that he will not make in order to achieve his goals. So much so that he ends a relationship with a women for no other reason than she's not as import as his music. Nieman is the product of a single parent family. His mother having left him and his father when he was young. The father being played here by Paul Reiser is nothing special and that may well be the point. A high school teacher or if you believe others 'a failed writer' with seemingly no aspersions of grandeur. A father who just tries to provide for his son and spends his days mostly looking down instead of up. Paul Reiser is very much 'acting by numbers here. He really isn't given that much to do. But that said there are only so many ways you can sit in a cinema and eat popcorn or give a supportive shoulder to cry on...
Then we get to the villain of the piece. Most of you until now will have been unfamiliar with the name J K Simmons but you will almost certainly remember his face when you see it. Simmons is one of those supporting actors who have the talent to play very diverse characters. Everything from J Jonah Jameson, the hyperactive editor of the Daily Bugle in the original Spiderman films (if you need your memory jogging just think grey wedge haircut and very loud) to the supportive and understanding father in Juno. Simmons has never been the leading man. He's never been given a script before and told to just take the brakes off and see what happens. In Whiplash he is nothing short of (Insert superlative here). Simmons is the perfect fit to play Fletcher and It’s been a long time since i saw an actor play a roll this well. In fact I'd go so far as to say that this performance could be mentioned in the same breath as Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross or Kevin Spacey playing Buddy Ackerman in Swimming With Sharks, it's that good. Fletcher's main purpose in life, as a teacher at Shaffer, is to hand pick the best students at the school, put them in his studio band and then drives them to point of breaking. His rationale being that unless the students are pushed out of their comfort zone then they'll never know if they have what it takes to be considered great. The other reason for the constant bullying and verbal executions that he delivers is that Fletcher will not except anything other than perfection from his musicians. He has such a hold over his class that even after being involved in a very big car crash on the way to a competition, that leaves the car totalled and on its roof and with Nieman left covered in blood and bruises, he still runs to the building in order not to miss his opportunity
Fletcher feeds on fear and ultimately this becomes the weapon that changes his life. (Slight spoiler alert ahead) Nieman fart and Fletcher both end up leaving Shaffer. They are fundamentally two sides of the same coin and although they don't want to admit it they need each other to be the best at what they do.
Both Miller and Simmons are at the top of their game here. They both leave everything on the screen and have an intensity about them that a lot of actors just can't replicate. I think I'm right in saying that Miller is in every scene and he plays the drums himself. Simmons also plays piano in this and plays it well. For a film that was shot in nineteen days then edited together and shown at the Sundance film festival less that ten weeks after is nothing short of remarkable. Turn around on a film of this quality is just not done in Hollywood. There will always be investors that want input in the creative process. Then there are test screenings and the inevitable re-edits. Whoever it was at Sony Films that had faith in writer director Damien Chazelle to just leave him alone and let him get on with it should be commended. Whiplash should be on everyone's viewing list. If you have reservations about watching it because you don't like jazz or you think that it's just not the sort of film you'll enjoy. Take those reservations, put them in a box and then leave them in a cupboard somewhere. Then go and see what is almost certainly going to be one of the best films released in 2015 or any year for that matter.
Twitter Review:
There are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job’.
#J
#K
#Simmons
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582802/?ref_=tt_rec_tti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d_jQycdQGo
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=138922
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2SLAgrouiw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McqCf1MsM-A
