Whiplash — Page 2

I don't understand how a teacher like that remains employed for very long.

---

A musician/music teacher friend of mine passed this on about the film:


An interesting take on Whiplash from a music teacher at USC

---

It happens for real every day in the NYC Public school system

---

I'm glad I didn't go to a conservatory. I don't like to get slapped in the face.

Updated On: 2/3/15 at 03:18 PM

I FINALLY went to see this today and I "liked" it, I guess.



Like Phyllis said, the movie is completely unbelievable in almost every way, to the point where it makes the unanimous raves it's getting seem a bit odd to me. The first second he slapped the kid, I was kind of taken out of it because it's just so unbelievable. We're not watching a movie about a mean NFL football coach, but a jazz musician whose importance is never really defined. Was he this amazing musician in the past or is he just some teacher? Because the importance put upon him by the students was never explained in a way that justified his insane behavior. That said, he was just a vile character who only really showed some range outside of that in the last 15 minutes of the film, so again while he was very good, I can't fully get behind this love parade for Simmons' performance. Teller, to me, was the real star of the film and it was great to see him get a chance to do something other than "teen movies".

For a while I thought maybe it was a movie about the cycle of abuse, because those other students were as nasty as JK. I thought the end was the most unrealistic part.

Updated On: 2/4/15 at 02:59 PM

***SPOILER***

From the beginning of that final concert, the story descended into a fairy tale. The Simmons character would never have risked an important performance by pulling that stunt.

---

I finally saw this and found it to be absolutely fascinating. It defied my expectations the entire way through, even after (accidentally) reading about several key plot points and analyses on here and other places on the Internet. I argued with myself about it long after it was over.

---

And I think Mister Matt is spot on about the movie becoming a fairy tale. In fact, I think the entire thing moves inexorably in that direction from the beginning, which is why I never objected to the increasingly outlandish events and behaviors. By the time we get to that final drum solo, we are nowhere near the real world as we saw it in the movie’s opening scenes, and in that way, in hindsight, I’ve been thinking of the story as a parable.

The movie in no way condones Fletcher’s abuse. My concerns about that were called into question when April Grace shows up to **SPOILER** discuss Fletcher’s former student who committed suicide. And when Andrew meets Fletcher in the bar later and bitterly asks him where the line is, I knew I wasn’t watching a movie about the ends justifying the means, but a movie asking us when they do.

We see what Andrew does to himself, physically, socially, and psychologically. It’s ugly and frightening – and yet how can we not cheer what comes out of him in the movie’s last 10 minutes? Sure, part of it is him finally showing Fletcher what’s what (a problematic position to take because isn’t Fletcher still the root of this behavior?), but part of it is also the possibility that he’s just performed something akin to the Charlie Parker solo, which Fletcher earlier described – and I’m paraphrasing – as the “greatest solo ever.”

I’m pretty sure the movie wants us to be troubled by our own reaction to that possibility.

It put me in mind of the mid-2000s documentaries “My Kid Could Paint That” and “Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?” which asks very similar questions about the value we put on great art.

---

And if there's any question in your mind about the veracity of the story of Whiplash, there shouldn't be, when Andrew gets into a big car crash, yet crawls out of it, bleeding, and runs through the city to get to his position at the drums on time.

---