Skip to main content

Whiplash (2014) - Review


"I'd rather die drunk, broke at 34 and have people at a dinner table talk about me than live to be rich and sober at 90 and nobody remembered who I was."

It's a simple story about a drummer enrolled in a prestigious music school aiming to become the next big thing and his ordeal when he gets into a class of a hardcore teacher.

Never in a million years would I have thought that a movie like this would make me sweat and raise my heart beat like crazy. I'm not particularly a fan of Jazz or drumming, the subject matter of the movie, and yet this movie somehow managed to do the impossible for me. WOW, just WOW.

Miles Teller, the guy who I have mostly seen in small secondary roles, was amazing as the lead in this movie. What made me even more appreciative of him is the fact that he did almost all of the drumming by himself, no special effects or whatever. And then there is J.K Simmons, who plays the hardcore teacher in the movie. He just blew my mind with his acting. His intensity was mesmerizing, so awesome.

The direction of the movie is spot on. I mean, there aren't any useless or non required stuff, only a small set of characters so we get all the focus on the main story. And best of all, is the intensity, which slowly but surely keeps on increasing as the movie goes forward and then explodes in the finale. I honestly was at the edge of my seat, with my hands sweating like crazy, and my heart beating like I was sprinting, during the finale. And the world wasn't in danger, the human race didn't face extinction, the favourite character wasn't dying or anything etc etc, it was just a drumming (plus ensemble) performance, that's the beauty of this film. Hats of to the team that made this film.

One of the best film of last year, easily. A must MUST watch.

9/10
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baywatch (2017) - Movie Review

Baywatch is a movie based on the old TV series of the same name. It's about a bunch of lifeguards on a beach who try to uncover drug smuggling in their area...yeah, that is the plot. It's dumb, it's stupid, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's not good, but it wasn't horrible either.  The movie actually had some fun in it. The Rock, as always, was charismatic, funny and likable; and Zac Efron, surprisingly, was similar to that. He got ripped AF for the movie. Alexandra Daddario was fun as well, although any movie gets bonus points for just including her in my book. Priyanka Chopra was in it as well, and between her in this and Deepika Padukone in XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, Priyanka definitely was the better one.  There were legit funny scenes sprinkled throughout, but there were also a shit ton of scenes that tried too hard to be hilarious but fell flat instead. Baywatch also had a large dosage...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Wick 2 (2017) - Movie Review

John Wick 2 is a sequel to the 2014 surprise hit John Wick, and it follows him as he is forced to return to his former life once again. The trailers did a good job of not giving much away, so I'll keep it vague as well. The first one was great, so naturally, I was hyped for the sequel, and suffice to say it delivered where it mattered.  Keanu Reeves once again reprises the role of ultimate bad-ass assassin John Wick, with different character motivations this time around, resulting in a more subdued performance than last time, which nonetheless works for the story, and it's just great seeing Keanu again in style. There are some familiar faces from the previous film like Ian McShane (Winston) and Lance Reddick (Hotel Manager), giving similarly good performances. And new ones like Laurence Fishburn, resulting in a reunion of Neo and Morpheus, which should make any Matrix fan cheer up inside, and he gave a good performance as well. One of the things that stood out to ...
1 comment
Read more

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) - Movie Review

The Hitman's Bodyguard stars Nick Fury and Deadpo-I mean Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds in a buddy action-comedy where Reynolds is a professional bodyguard who gets tangled up with a hitman portrayed by Jackson.  What worked for me in this movie were the scenes with Reynolds and Jackson together. Their performances were what you'd expect them to give in a movie like this. Not breaking new grounds or anything like that but being their usual comedic personas, and they both were entertaining....well for the most part anyway. They had a nice chemistry, and they worked off each other well. And most of the action scenes were enjoyable, one in particular, which was a long take including Reynolds. The problem with The Hitman's Bodyguard, though, was that it had a lot of other stuff going on as well which just wasn't interesting enough for me to care because not only did it detract from the fun of the main duo, the movie took it way too seriously. It ...
Post a Comment
Read more