Whiplash (2014) on Netflix
Andrew Neiman is nineteen and set on becoming a great jazz drummer. Terence Fletcher recruits him into Shaffer Conservatory's top ensemble, and the conductor's rehearsals turn out to be brutal.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb8.5/101,181,712 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
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Plot summary
Andrew Neiman is nineteen and in his first year at Shaffer Conservatory in New York City, where he wants to become a great jazz drummer. Terence Fletcher, who conducts the school's top ensemble, hears him practicing and takes him on as the reserve player behind the core drummer, Carl Tanner. Fletcher's rehearsals are brutal: he throws a chair, slaps Andrew and berates him in front of the band over tempo, and Andrew practices until his hands bleed. When Tanner cannot perform without his sheet music, Andrew takes over the drums and Fletcher makes him core drummer, then hands the seat to Ryan Connolly. Andrew's devotion to the drums costs him his relationship with Nicole and puts him at odds with his family, and he practices at home with a pitcher of ice water beside him for his bleeding hands.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Whiplash (2014)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director Damien Chazelle based the tyrannical conductor Terence Fletcher on his own former high school band instructor, who had died in 2003, then exaggerated the character further by adding traits of Buddy Rich and other notoriously harsh bandleaders.
- Chazelle pushed J. K. Simmons to make Fletcher inhuman, telling him early on to go past what felt like the normal limit because he did not want to see a human being on screen, but "a monster, a gargoyle, an animal."
- Chazelle was seriously injured in a car accident during the third week of filming and was hospitalized with a possible concussion, yet he returned to the set the very next day so the tightly scheduled shoot could still wrap on time.
- Miles Teller, who had taught himself drums at fifteen, performed most of his own drumming; co-star and real jazz drummer Nate Lang coached him in jazz technique, including switching his stick grip from matched to traditional, while professional drummer Kyle Crane doubled for him in certain scenes.
- Whiplash expected to compete for Best Original Screenplay, but the Academy reclassified it as Adapted, ruling it an adaptation of Chazelle's own 2013 short film even though the feature-length script had actually been written first, a decision that surprised Chazelle.
