Whiplash

Writer-director Damien Chazelle draws on his memories as a music student to create this compelling coming-of-age drama about a prodigy with the ambition of becoming a celebrated jazz drummer, the next Buddy Rich or Gene Krupa. Nineteen-year-old Andrew (Miles Teller) is a first-year student at a prestigious Manhattan musical conservatory. Obsessively driven to succeed, partly due to his ineffectual father's (Paul Reiser) failed writing career, Andrew impresses everyone, particularly embittered instructor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), whose abortive career has made him resentful of kids with potential. Fletcher is an impatient, sadistic perfectionist who not only bullies and belittles his pupils but also pits them against one another in ruthless competitions for places in the elite jazz band. So Andrew must contend with both a fellow newcomer (Austin Stowell) and an upperclassman (Nate Lang), while Fletcher cruelly accuses him of being a “retard,” “pansy ass” and “tonal catastrophe.” Citing tough love, sociopathic Fletcher's excuse is that his job is “to push people beyond what was expected of them.” Succumbing to Fletcher's monstrous imperatives, Andrew relinquishes all semblance of a normal life. Likeable Teller makes a career leap here, while veteran character actor J.K. Simmons delivers a flawless, award-winning performance. Abusive yet electrifying, Whiplash is an absorbing tale of artistic sacrifice. Recommended. (S. Granger)