Caught the jazz drummer college movie Whiplash… about a young guy trying to become the best jazz drummer he can and the insane professor/conductor who makes his life hell. It’s about what it takes to take a good player and mold him through threats, pain, and mental games into an excellent player. The kid is played by Miles Teller (who does a lot of his own drumming) and the aggressive maestro is played amazingly by JK Simmons in a performance that needs to be seen.

If the name JK Simmons doesn’t mean anything to you, he’s one of those “that guys” you see a lot – most notably as Juno’s dad in Juno and J. Jonah Jameson in the Tobey McGuire Spiderman movies.

What makes the movie work are a number of very intense dramatic showdowns where Simmons’ character berates, plays mental games with, and physically wears out his students. It’s a duel between an unarmed kid and a sadist who only wants to create the next great jazz musician. People have compared this movie to an anti-Dead-Poet’s Society… the student/mentor relationship you would definitely NOT want. An accurate description…. the question is, does this villainous approach work?

Only problem I had with the movie was that it would occasionally go just a little over the edge into melodrama. If it had just reined back some of those more extremely improbable scenes, this would have been a great movie. Instead, it’s merely a very good one. Still a recommendation, especially if you want to see a killer performance or if you love insane drum work.

Score: 85