After generating a lot of buzz during its theatrical run, and quite a few awards nominations and wins along the way to Oscar night, audiences who may have missed Whiplash in theaters can now check it out on home video. Does the film live up to the hype?

The story is fairly simple: young musician attends a prestigious music school in the hopes of becoming a great jazz drummer like his idol Buddy Rich. The student, Andrew (Miles Teller), doesn’t get much support from his family, is an outsider at school, and is terribly awkward with the opposite sex. Andrew stays focused on his music and thinks he’s on the right path when instructor Terrence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) seems to take him under his wing. But the dream becomes a nightmare as Fletcher goes from mentor to monster.

It’s not hard to see why Simmons has been winning every acting award in sight (including the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). He takes what could have been a horrible, one-note character and gives him many complex layers. He may appear to be a bully, but perhaps he just cares enough to want to help a young musician achieve their own greatness … or he could just be trying to show the world that he can create greatness. It’s a challenging role and Simmons shows us a side of himself that we haven’t seen before. Teller also gives a terrific performance that’s been overshadowed by Simmons, showing us Andrew’s insecurities and determination through his facial expressions. With Fletcher, you never really know what’s going on under the surface but Andrew wears all of his emotions on his sleeve. And Teller learned how to drum for the part as well!

The film is directed astonishingly well by Damien Chazelle, who based the story on his own experience, and produced a very accomplished film in the span of nineteen days! The final musical performance is a head-spinning montage of constantly moving camerawork and sharp editing that deservedly won the Best Editing Oscar. (Most prognosticators pegged Boyhood for the editing win, but there was no question in my mind Whiplash had it sewn up based on this one scene.)

Whiplash is now available on home video, and the Blu-ray is a thing of beauty. The image, consisting of mostly warm browns and inky blacks, is beautiful with enough fine detail to capture lines and scars on faces and drops of sweat and blood as Andrew drives himself to perfection. The disk’s 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio favors the center channel for the most part, but when the orchestra kicks in during performances and rehearsals, the surrounds fill with music.

The disk also contains a wealth of bonus material … something that’s been lacking in a lot of home video releases of late.

• Audio commentary with Damien Chazelle and J.K. Simmons — The two discuss the process of making the film from casting to locations to crafting performances, with Chazelle being the serious filmmaker and Simmons the comic relief.
• Timekeepers (42:56) — A collection of professional drummers talk about how they got started, their careers, education, influences and more. Featured drummers include Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Doane Perry (Jethro Tull), Roy McCurdy (Blood Sweat and Tears), Gina Schock (The Go-Gos), and Wally Ingram (Timbuk3). The film is entertaining to a point, but I lost interest after about twenty minutes.
• Whiplash Original Short Film (17:56) — The “Rushing/Dragging” scene from the movie with J.K. Simmons and many of the film’s actors/musicians in the same roles. Chazelle recreates this scene in the movie almost shot by shot. Also with optional audio commentary.
• Fletcher at Home (1:30) — A deleted scene with optional commentary. The scene was wisely cut from the film because it reveals a lot about Fletcher that could have affected the rest of the film.
• An Evening at the Toronto International Film Festival with Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons and Damien Chazelle (7:50) — Q & A at the festival, we learn it took 19 days to shoot the movie, how the director chose the actors and how they prepared for their roles. Best answer is from the director on why he went from jazz drumming to film directing.
• Theatrical trailer and Previews for other Sony titles.

I can’t say that Whiplash is the best film of the year, but it is certainly worth a look. It’s accomplished, the music is great and it features two outstanding performances from Teller and Simmons. The video/audio quality and bonus material on the Blu-ray is certainly an incentive to pick up the title and judge for yourself. And after Oscar night, we can look back on the film and realize that this is the moment Simmons went from more than just a familiar face (and voice of the Yellow M&M) who seems to pop up everywhere.

The Whiplash Blu-ray was generously provided to CliqueClack for review by Sony Pictures Home Video.

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“If music be the food of love, play on.”

There is a thin line between a caring teacher who’s pushing you as hard as you can go to achieve greatness and a giant jerk on a power trip. Teaching is difficult, and teaching the truly talented is not as easy as it sounds. Many coast on by, letting the students do all the work. But it’s thought often that you really need to push and push to achieve greatness; if you aren’t struggling, can you truly obtain anything more than mediocrity in a sea of the same?

Whiplash gets its name from the appropriately named jazz piece by Don Ellis, because this movie hurts like you won’t be expecting. The film stars Miles Teller as young Andrew Neiman, a first year drumming student at the most prestigious music school in the country. He aches to become a true artist and a true success, so he practices constantly, even listening to the old greats. And then he encounters Terence Fletcher (J. K . Simmons), a conductor with a terrifying teaching style but is still considered one of the best at what he does. Andrew tries hard to impress Fletcher, but it’s not so simple. He somehow manages to show enough talent to join Fletcher’s band, which performs at real venues, but he’s pushed every step of the way by Fletcher. Yelling, screaming, berating, insulting. This kid literally bleeds to impress and succeed.

His personal life is a different level of importance; he is interested in a girl (Melissa Benoist), but is he interested enough? His father (Paul Reiser) wants what’s best for him but can he truly understand? Andrew may not think so, but his father was an artist in a past life too. So Andrew keeps trying, and failing, and trying, and failing again. Scene after scene of struggle and triumph, push and pull, as he matches wills against the dominating complex force of Fletcher. Is Fletcher a bad guy? He does bad things, but does he go too far? Or does he merely care too much about perfection?

So this movie is pretty great, with fantastic images of the hardcore drumwork — Miles Teller does most of it, which is extremely impressive. He’s good in general, although at times he’s a bit histrionic. I think he has a real interesting spark; an actor who has a natural charisma. But this is J. K. Simmons’ show and he is phenomenal. He owns the stage and the screen, keeping your eye on him at all times, wondering what he will do next. The music of course is always excellent, shot in general and mixed beautifully, building as it needs to and keeping your attention riveted to the screen. What I liked about the movie is that although it kept Andrew as the “hero” of sorts, it kept Fletcher in a weird grey zone of “teacher/mentor” combined with “adversary/antagonist” in an interesting way. You begin to wonder if it’s worth it, if Andrew should just give up.

That’s when it gets you, when you know you’re invested. I couldn’t help but be drawn in to this world of jazz musicians, which isn’t my genre of music by any means, and I’m not buying it anytime soon. That said, the story was classic but interesting. It twists and turns but it goes to where it needs to go. And if you think you’re ready for a fifteen minute drum solo for reasons good and bad … you gotta see this movie. At the very least, watch it for the amazing performances, both acting and musically. It’ll blow you away.