Review: Whiplash

-
Are you rushing or are you dragging?
I played the drums all through high school. When I was in junior high, I had an awful band teacher. He was rude and picky and he kind of made me hate the instruments I had grown to love so much. Seeing Fletcher in action made me realize I had it easy.

Andrew (Miles Teller) is a jazz drummer that has been accepted into the most prestigious music school in the country. One that has a studio band run by a very aggressive conductor, Terrence Fletcher. (J.K Simmons) Fletcher pulls Andrew from practice one day and lets him sit in the studio band. He feels a little cocky about it, and soon Fletcher begins to break him down in some pretty extreme ways. 

When you think of intense movies, you think of thrillers, war movies, car chases, probably not jazz music. This is honestly one of the most intense movies I've ever seen. I thought I was going to have a genuine anxiety attack on behalf of Andrew a few times. This is brilliant film making, and the ending is one of the best I've ever seen.

Obviously Simmons is great, he's winning every award there is out there and rightfully so, but Teller isn't getting nearly enough credit. This is the best performance I've seen him give too.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: A+

Memorable Quote: "Four words you'll never hear from the NFL." - Andrew (Miles Teller)

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2015 at 9:10 AM

    I can't wait for this! I have this queued up in my saved section and will bump it to #1 the second it's available. Love the tie in to your school days. I took sax in school...and hated my teacher too...mostly because I wanted to take drums and she wouldn't let me :-P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 7, 2015 at 9:18 AM

      lol, drums is where it's at! I was the only girl though, so I always got stuck playing the bells. Not that I minded, I was better at them.

      Delete
  2. s.February 7, 2015 at 12:05 PM

    So glad you finally saw it and liked it! Yep, that movie is the definition of intense. It was really amazing and although I preferred Norton I'm glad Simmons is winning

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 7, 2015 at 1:14 PM

      Oh me too. Now my Top 10 of 2014 is ready to post.

      Delete
  3. .February 7, 2015 at 2:09 PM

    So glad you loved it! It really was intense as fuck. I felt so emotional, and I hate admitting that because it sounds so ridiculous all typed out, ahha. Just thinking about it sort of gives me a high. That ending was everything!!!
    Great post!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 8, 2015 at 5:44 PM

      I know how you feel. I don't think my husband quite understands how intense this movie was. He hasn't seen it yet.

      Delete
  4. Candice FrederickFebruary 7, 2015 at 5:02 PM

    Wow...i thought this was kinda boring and ridiculous at times. but i did like simmons :(

    ReplyDelete
  5. Paul SFebruary 7, 2015 at 5:34 PM

    Great review!

    ReplyDelete
  6. thevoid99February 7, 2015 at 8:02 PM

    Man, I was blown away by that film. Especially that last sequence.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownFebruary 7, 2015 at 9:06 PM

    I'm glad you loved this so much! I am hoping to see it in the next couple of days.

    My junior high band teacher used to hit students with his baton. :-/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 8, 2015 at 5:41 PM

      Lol. Can you imagine a teacher doing that today? Mine just yelled all the time.

      Delete
  8. LukeFebruary 7, 2015 at 10:42 PM

    So glad you loved Whiplash this much. I can't wait for Chazelle's next effort. Apparently it is called La La Land and stars Teller and Emma Watson.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Big Screen Small WordsFebruary 7, 2015 at 11:07 PM

    I wasn't expecting to like Whiplash a lot, but it was so amazing. Fletcher sort of reminded me a bit of my teachers too, that they're perfectionists. Miles Teller did give a wonderful performance, the best of his I've seen so far.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 8, 2015 at 5:40 PM

      When I first heard about it, I wasn't expecting much either, but oh that changed!

      Delete
  10. m.brownFebruary 8, 2015 at 3:33 PM

    Ugh. I desperately want to see this. Simmons has been everywhere getting praise for this, only furthering my frustration. Teller looks like he goes through some shit in this one. Poor guy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 8, 2015 at 5:39 PM

      He really did. He did all that drumming himself. I hope you get to see it soon.

      Delete
  11. msmariahFebruary 8, 2015 at 6:23 PM

    I can't wait to see this one Brittani! Great review. Simmons is probably one of absolute favorite actors. He's just brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 9, 2015 at 10:32 AM

      He's next level amazing here! I hope you get to see it soon, and that you love it as much as I did.

      Delete
  12. keith71_98February 9, 2015 at 10:02 AM

    Great review. This is the little movie that could. It has caught a lot of people's attention and it seems like there may be more to Miles Teller than the idiotic raunchy comedies. And Simmons is something, right. He has his Oscar in the bag.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 9, 2015 at 10:33 AM

      Oh for sure, Teller was great here. It's a shame Lead Actor was such a heavy category this year,then I think he would've gotten more praise.

      Delete
  13. MyerlaFebruary 12, 2015 at 5:36 AM

    I saw this yesterday and concerned about whether it would match the praise given to it from almost every corner of the movie internet world. Thankfully, I found to be a superb film. Best film of the year, and I hate joining bandwagons. Simmons' performance was simply captivating, as was Teller's.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 12, 2015 at 6:37 AM

      I know how you feel about bandwagons, but sometimes they're worth the hype, and this one certainly is. I'm glad you loved it!

      Delete
  14. AnonymousFebruary 14, 2015 at 11:09 PM

    LOVED this movie. I'm going to see it for a third time this week, because my boyfriend hasn't seen it yet. I love the reactions of friends when they see this movie :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 15, 2015 at 7:53 AM

      Oh I know! The audience in the theater I was in were all gasping and what not. It was a fun experience. I will be buying this on DVD for sure.

      Delete
  15. JoshFebruary 19, 2015 at 7:57 PM

    This movie was great! So intense, and both Teller and Simmons did a terrific job. I took trumpet for a semester in middle school, but I never had an experience remotely close to Andrew.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Look at Atlantic Highlands NJ House cleaning click hereJune 27, 2016 at 11:28 PM

    Greatness is appalling in a meritocracy like ours, simply because it cannot be duplicated: hardly anyone is crazy enough to try. Greatness is equally wonderful for those same reasons. Appalling and wonderful are apt adjectives for this great movie.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen
Read more

Please join me in my Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon!

-
Image
Earlier this week I made a post where I ran through the letters of the alphabet with my favorite movie titles. There were a few people that suggested I turn it into a blogathon, and I've never done that before. So here goes nothing! Since this is my first attempt at a blogathon, it's all pretty simple, and it's hopefully a quick post that everyone can join in. Rules: 1) Going through the alphabet, list your favorite movie title beginning with each letter.  2) You don't have to necessarily  like the movie to use it's title.  3) Use the banner at the top of this post in yours. 4) Please have submissions in by Friday, May 30th*. (But I'll be honest, if you send them to me after that date, I'll still add them to my post.) You can either leave a link to your post in the comments here or tweet it to me, ( @ramblingfilm )  Thanks everyone! :)  *I had to move the date back a week due to Photobucket threatening me with bandwidth issues. But
Read more