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WHIPLASH: I hate everything about it because I love everything about it...
Well, I just got back from watching Whiplash. I'll stop there for now as I build the tension.
It seemed this year's Oscars have been really promising, of course we should all remind ourselves that the Oscars are run by old rich white men who do not give a single piece of shit for anything of "art", or in this case "great art", the Oscars are so cynically corporate you'd rather just wait and read who won the night after they run the show.
Aside from the obvious, I was there watching it and tweeting like hell for every bit of whatever was announced because I get excited to see movies I've seen win awards (Birdman, Grand Budapest Hotel, Imitation Game, Boyhood and most recently Whiplash) and to see movies fail to get anything (American Sniper, AHAHAHAHAHA!!)...Birdman having won best original screenplay, best director and best picture of all things, it was a movie that had innovation, it was original, it was terrific despite its WTF ending and maybe it deserved to win best picture.
However, I now feel that while Birdman had its wings dipped in gold, I dare say it was the wrong film to win best picture, best original screenplay and best director. Birdman is a good movie and deserves whatever praise it gets, but in terms of something that was truly remarkable and fantastical beyond my wildest imagination Whiplash had done the impossible.
Whiplash is so good, I felt that I should never bother to write, draw, film or do anything ever again, my insecurity to ever understand human relationships or of "love", even writing this review may not do it justice but I will certainly try but I doubt it will do anything.
It has blown my mind so much it makes me not want to do anything in my life anymore because I would fuck everything up, I would fail, I would never see my work come to fruition because I would be the only one who loves and adores my work while the rest of the world and the greatest that stand above me in triumph will never acknowledge my existence nor my spirit of any kind because I can never be a good as they are, even while unique and different, you will never see Toby Johansen as one of the greatest artists, writers and filmmakers of all time and life in of itself will never ever care.
Whiplash is a story about an up-and-coming drummer boy named Andrew (played expertly by the great Miles Teller) who wants to become the best there ever was enrolling into a music college where he practices his talent right from day one he is "acknowledged" by the most respected and down-right diabolical conductor named Fletcher (played even more expertly by J.K. Simmons who owns every scene and is very worthy of his Oscar) who takes Andrew in to break every bone and spirit in his body to become the best.
Andrew thought being a drummer could be tough but it excels from tough to complete and horrific madness, as all artistic geniuses tend to get, having found a girl he wanted to date explains through the most masterful piece of dialogue how she would be a complete distraction to him from becoming the best (which let's face it is with MOST of American women these days, take that however you want to), resenting his relatives who under-rate him even his own father, bleeding constantly as much blood as it takes to bang all those drums and cymbals (literally!) faster and faster to prove himself.
The relationship between Teller and Simmons is something I never thought could make me laugh, shutter, feel horrifically depressed or as joyous as they did all thanks to a masterful script written, again expertly, by the very talented director Damien Chazelle.
The dialogue is amazing as well as the direction for what is shown to you, as you watch these two play with and against each other you really feel it, you feel Teller going through his insane pressures and even cheer for him at his most bleakest of moments, J.K. Simmons starts out as a riot being the biggest hard-ass since R. Lee Ermey's performance in Full Metal Jacket and you feel the intensity, you feel how much hate and loathe you have for this character to the point he just stays with you and will never leave you.
It's like a manifestation of what the real world is where it has those teachers who can push you so far off the edge forcing you to become the best even if it means humiliating you in front of your peers like a dog who can't do any tricks, it could lead you to suicide, and you REALLY believe it.
Add to that some of the best drummer music of the finest jazz you'll ever get to hear in a long while, even if you're not a jazz fan you can't help but be enriched and tangled in the net this movie pulls over you.
Many of you will read this and think "Dude, calm the fuck down, it's just a fuckin' movie" to which I will reply "No! You fucking idiot! This movie isn't JUST a movie, it is REALITY! It is ART! It is mightier than god, jesus, the prophet muhammadman! It's a movie that if you dare say it's nothing special, it'll go out of its way to expose to the world how fat and ugly your girlfriend is and everyone will see and will humiliate her and you couldn't stop it because it is amazing at what it does!"
I watched this movie laughing at first because of how crazy the tension was getting, as it played on and I watched everything that Andrew had gone through it reminds me of myself how I go out of my way to create the things I want to create, even if that means sacrificing that bullshit about getting a girlfriend (Yeah, fuck you H-wood), leaving your family behind for your token of stardom and even sacrificing your own well-being to become something larger than life itself...
After the movie was over, I felt sad...I feel depressed even now, because I have watched a movie that has impressed me so much I could never even write anything nearly as creative, I could never be able to break myself enough to bleed, I could never control my anxiety nor insecurity to ever be able to accomplish the same purity this movie did, it makes me look up to it, and it smacks me around, it steps all over me, it does everything in its power to stab me in the back and through my heart and mind so many times, even as I write this review I feel like I was bested by my worst enemy.
I hate everything about this movie because I love everything about this movie.
It's told me I could never accomplish something this great, even if I tried, or even if I stuck to my guns of my own creativity, it will never match up to how immortal this movie will become, while I only criticize it for how stunning a masterpiece of filmmaking and story-telling it truly is...I feel like it has broken me deep inside, a deep sadness is all over me, my friends, family, ladies and gents...I hate it...but this movie says its all true.
Whiplash is not just a film, it's a testament of how something can mean to a person who watches it, it's a testament of how originality can make you feel and think and drive you mad because of how great it can be done.
No one should ever go through life without seeing this film that has surely broken my very spirit or whatever it is I have in myself, it makes me cry and cynicism of the world will remind me of how sad I am...but it's only because this movie had the guts to tell me like it is.
10/10 Truly one of the greatest movies ever made.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go off and cry some more and see if I can ever get back to doing what I love doing...