Damien Chazelle’s second feature film blew away the Sundance crowds and it’s easy to see why. The film starts with a bang and doesn’t slow the tempo for a moment. Whiplash stars Miles Teller as Andrew, a young drummer enrolled in the country’s most prestigious music school. His dreams of becoming one of the world’s greatest drummers are put to the test however when he comes up against the vicious, abusive, downright jerky conservatory instructor Terrence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). With the first chair in the elite jazz band at stake, Andrew is forced to push himself to incredible extremes.

Yeah, it all sounds like an inspiring Disney success story, but this film is way more gut-wrenching than I thought a movie about jazz band could ever be. I mean, c’mon, it’s jazz band. While we enter the film in familiar territory (ambitious kid’s first day at school doesn’t go as planned) it’s blown to pieces by the first appearance of J.K. Simmons. His Terrence Fletcher has to be one of the scariest, most intense, most hateable teachers ever put on screen. It’s an awards worthy performance from the veteran actor and helps elevate this film to incredibly entertaining heights. Miles Teller should also get kudos, it’s basically just the two of them for the majority of the story, yet I found myself holding my breath throughout.

Pulsing with energy, tighter than a snare-drum and unapologetic in its message, Whiplash is a fascinating study on greatness and the sacrifices necessary to achieve it. It was the highlight of my first day at TIFF and probably has a good chance at being my favourite film of the festival. That’s a bold prediction right out of the gate, but that’s how much I liked this film. Damien Chazelle is an exciting young director who will be very interesting to watch in the future. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to watch drum videos on YouTube.

Reviewed by Evan Arppe.

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