FILM REVIEW: Whiplash (2014)

(Rated R for violence and graphic language.)

Whiplash is a 2014 film directed by Damien Chazelle starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. The film is centered on a determined and driven first year Jazz student named Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) and the experience he has being taught by a harsh conductor named Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons.)

The film starts out quietly enough after an opening scene involving drum practice. We get a general idea of Neiman's life;  he's mostly a normal kid, but he has a drive and determination to be one of the "greats" of Jazz drumming. He's enrolled in a famous music school in New York known as Shaffer Conservatory to help better his skills, and it's his drive and determination that leads Terence Fletcher to eventually bring him into his personal band.

We get the idea from the first scene of the film and the couple that follow that Fletcher is a very precise and unforgiving teacher, but you don't really get an idea of how truly terrifying he is until the moment every member of his band frightfully stands in unison when he enters the classroom about twenty or so minutes into the film. I like when movies can use scenes like that effectively: It uses a few scenes to build what a character is like, then sets you in an environment that prepares the viewer for how unrestrained that character will be. The film is full on good visual cues, but the scene where he walks into the band room was one of my favorites.

Where Neiman has a drive, Fletcher sees that and is willing to use anything against him (including personal insults and throwing objects) in order to humiliate Neiman. The idea for Fletcher is that once he exposes his students to his cruelty and mockery, those students will want to push themselves and train harder to prove themselves. There's an understanding of Fletcher's viewpoint to be had, and there's a scene at one point in the movie where he quietly expresses his viewpoints on jazz and teaching people, but it's just as easy to see that what he's doing might push some people to the brink.

He's verbally trashing people in cruel ways and going as far as to use physical violence. He even looks intimidating, as he dresses himself all in black with shirt that shows off his muscles. He's not just verbally intimating, he's physically so, adding another layer of fear for his students. For him, this is just to drive his students to be beyond good. In Neiman's case, he pushes himself to distressing extents.

I won't go too far into what happens, but it becomes evident that it's not just about the music. It's about the morality of how far one should push someone as a teacher, and the film never really answers that question. We see perspectives on it, but it's through the characters talking to each other like people. There's no long rants about Jazz that's attempting to speak to the audience, and I respect the director for having the sense to include good dialogue that respects the audience. It lets the viewer decide on who was morally right, if anybody, and has no trouble portraying Neiman's character as insanely egotistical in parts of the movie. While Fletcher is far easier to identify as a potential villain, Neiman is hardly free of guilt. Or maybe he is, depending on how far you take what effects Fletcher's character has on him - but that's the beauty of ambiguity in movies like these.

While Simmon's character is probably the highlight of the film (he won so many awards for his role he probably has a closet specifically for them), the directing is top-notch. It has a very dim lighting throughout that owes very well to jazz, and the reaction shots are filmed well to music. It feels like you're in the film from Neiman's perspective, and the film never slows down because of it. When Fletcher isn't screaming his head off at every little mistake Neiman makes, Neiman is furiously practicing the drums to the point where he injures his hands. As a result, there are very few points to breath in this movie, and even those tend to be awkward or uncomfortable in some manner or another after the first fifteen minutes. The film is just constantly laced with tension.

Everything that happens in the film builds up to a third act. The third act is so phenomenal that it could've worked as a short film by itself without any of the context of the rest of the movie, but it's so much more special that you do have context to it. It's an intense final twenty or so minutes that I don't hesitate to call unforgettable. It's one of the best finales to any movie out there and does a rare job of utilizing all of the previous tension into the movie and adding it altogether for one final heart stopping finale.

Whiplash gets a 10/10. I'm not too sad over how overlooked this film was at award seasons outside of some specific categories since I believe this film will probably stand the test of time. I imagine it'll be remembered decades from now for all the detail and work that went into making a near-perfectly constructed film. I'd rank this behind Drive as my favorite film of the decade thus far.

After all the work and care that went into this film, I can't wait to see what Damien Chazelle has next, and I hope whatever it is is as masterful as this was.

FILM REVIEW: American Sniper (2014)

(Rated R for graphic violence, graphic language, and adult content.) 

(Above: Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, preparing to take a shot.)

This is sort-of-spoilery, but the film is based off of pretty well known real-life events, so I figure a few spoilers here-and-there is okay. I don't go too much into detail beyond conveying the film's message. 

American Sniper is a 2014 film (released wide in Jan. 2015) about Chris Kyle, the deadliest sniper in U.S. history.

This film had been in the works well before Kyle had ever died, with David O Russel and Steven Spielberg being attached to direct the project until Clint Eastwood was given the go-ahead after Spielberg's script was considered too costly. 

Despite production troubles (not to mention the sudden and tragic death of Kyle himself in 2013) the film got made, and stars Bradley Cooper as the titular sniper.

The film seeks to document Chris Kyle's life, and does so in a fairly erratic way by frequently making jumps. We start with the pictured scene above with him preparing to make his first kill, and before he makes the decision on whether or not to pull the trigger, there's a lengthy flashback showing his early life.

We learn he's raised by a traditional conservative family and that as he grows up he lacks much aim in his life. When he sees an embassy get bombed, he takes the opportunity to join the military and feels he needs to protect his country. After rigorous training and meeting who would later become his wife, he sees 9/11 unfold on his television screen and becomes more motivated to fight than ever before.

This motivation eventually begins to consume him. Throughout the film, he becomes eaten away by acts of violence that occur. Either by him having to kill children roped into war, or by witnessing utter brutality at the ends of the enemy. He's found his calling in life, but it's slowly destroying him.

Each new tour he goes on eats away at him more, and it eats away at his family life because his wife is raising their children alone. Despite this, the audience can understand why Kyle is doing what he does in the film. He feels obligated, and truly believes that he's protecting his country and comrades. 

Bradley Cooper has a wonderful display of emotions in this film, making him the honest highlight. Not to discredit the film as a whole, as the directing is pretty spot on, but the film manages to drag in a few spots. These aren't too negative since Cooper is more or less constantly present in the film, and it's just frequently astounding how much of a genuine job Cooper does conveying Chris Kyle.

As per the film basically showing his life, I feel like Eastwood plays to the audience's expectations on some level. Most viewers understand that Kyle dies, and the film gets more and more intense as it goes on. Kyle becomes more and more unstable, and the biggest tragedy is that when he finally finds a calling in life helping others in a way that doesn't eat at him like war does, he ends up dying.

That's the common element between most of the most brutal and tragic elements to the film - war caused them. Whether it's civilians dying in the streets, whether it's Kyle's friends dying to gunfire, or whether it's Kyle himself dying trying to help others with PTSD, the common element is that war is the cause.

The film never really has to say it, but it's one of the more poignant anti-war films I've seen as of late. Eastwood tends to be able to craft films in a way that's easy to grasp but still relatively subtle (Unforgiven) and American Sniper is no different.

8/10. Cooper gives a wonderful performance with a full spectrum of emotions, and Eastwood rarely spares a moment in crafting the message of his film, down to the end credits. I recommend it, though mind the content warning.

To address the controversy surrounding the film:

I don't really like to discuss political things, but I feel kind of inclined to jump to the film's defense a bit here in what it's intending. I think a lot of people seem to interpret it as "Pro-x" when it really is a pretty ambiguous film in terms of its portrayal of Kyle. The movie certainly isn't pro-war in any capacity, though people who don't watch many of Eastwood's films might not catch that narrative. I mean, I recently saw Unforgiven, so I'm well aware that Eastwood can put a lot of dedication and time into crafting something very morally ambiguous.

As for Kyle himself, I don't like that the issue has been spread black and white. I see some people calling him a psychopath, and others calling him a hero. I don't think it's fair to call him either, and just to consider him another victim of war. He had extraordinary talent as a soldier, and that should be recognized, but I think the film made a big point that he wasn't some superhuman and was deeply afflicted by his experiences in the Middle East. That was a major point of the film. No matter how amazing at combat you are, you can still be mentally vulnerable.

The film pays respect to him without making him some mythical heroic figure and also recognizes that war is bad. Rather than simply conveying that with a little dialogue, though, Eastwood and Jason Hall manage to convey that scene-by-scene in an increasingly intense film. It's a complex issue, and that's exactly how it's laid out. I don't understand the controversy behind this movie or the debate behind it. It's not an outstanding film, nor the best war film out there, but it's still a good piece of work that doesn't deserve the political dichotomy tainting it.