Intense, Academy Award-winning student-teacher music drama starring Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now) as a young jazz drummer aspiring to make it to the top, but having to go through the brutal tutelage of his ruthless instructor (J.K. Simmons in an Oscar-winning performance).
An eager-to-the-point-of-obsessive student at the prestigious (and fictional) Shaffer Conservatory, 19-year-old Andrew Neiman (Teller) pushes himself to become one of the all-time greats behind the drum kit. In the thick of this ultra-competitive environment, he catches the eye of the terrifying Terrence Fletcher (Simmons), who picks Neiman to play in the Conservatory's elite house band. With this opportunity comes a scarcely believable level of abuse, something Fletcher sees as necessary to unlock Neiman's full potential - but will he break him in the process?
Less
94%303 reviews
As a stress-inducing exercise in cinematic asphyxiation, Whiplash is this year’s Gravity. Where Alfonso Cuarón’s film placed an astronaut into merciless space, writer-director Damien Chazelle chucks 19-year-old jazz drummer Andrew (Miles Teller) into the merciless grasp of a brutal music instructor (JK Simmons). And just like Gravity, Whiplash is bound for Oscars.
Full review
Demolishes the cliches of the musical-prodigy genre, investing the traditionally polite stages and rehearsal studios... with all the psychological intensity of a battlefield or sports arena.
Full review
It may get a few things wrong, but it aims at, and finally achieves, an authenticity at once more exalted and more primal than mere verisimilitude.
Full review
It's rare to see a film about music that professes its love for the music and its characters equally.
Full review
The film’s aversion toward clichés and hitting expected beats lends it a rare, welcome edge of danger.
Full review
As for the strangely exhilarating ending, it makes clear that what we have been watching is less a statement about art than a love story: a twisted one, but romantic in every sense.
Full review
The antithesis of “let’s-put-on-a-show” fluff, Whiplash...is about the wages of all-out sacrifice and commitment.
Full reviewWhiplash is available to stream in New Zealand now on Netflix and Google Play and Apple TV and Academy On Demand and AroVision.
Get to your watchlist.
Or sign in with your email
Don’t have a Flicks account?
Keep track of the movies and show you want to see + get Flicks email updates.
Or sign up with your email
Already have a Flicks account?
Don’t have a Flicks account?
Remembered your password?
To post ratings/reviews we need a username. This is what will appear next to your ratings and reviews.
