kind of agree. I was ready to walk out after about 30 mins but I'm really glad I stuck with it. Best film I've seen this year, and that's saying something as there have been some good ones.
― I, (dog latin), Sunday, 22 February 2015 10:52 (nine years ago) link
the only thing that was less believable than Fletcher sabotaging his own concert was the fact that this supposed drum prodigy couldn't manage to convincingly fake his way through a surprise song. As far as we know, he only ever learned how to play two songs and had no concept of jazz drumming or anything else beyond that. Basically, he was a pretty bad drummer and it was never clear why he was given so many opportunities at all.
Also, I know Fletcher was supposed to be cruel, but I think even the cruelest of band leaders would fetch the paramedics if a musician showed up to a session with a major head wound.
― Free Me's Electric Trumpet (Moodles), Thursday, 26 February 2015 01:46 (nine years ago) link
there's also the curious case of how he wasn't arrested for fleeing the scene of an accident but i had already accepted him basically managing to get up, sprint, and fake his way through a few bars of drums before collapsing so I just ~went with it~
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Thursday, 26 February 2015 01:50 (nine years ago) link
cutehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVt_1lGTUcg#t=99
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Monday, 2 March 2015 22:15 (nine years ago) link
aww
― maura, Monday, 2 March 2015 22:19 (nine years ago) link
Weird: the incidental music (score) in this film is totally great and such a nice change from the "real music"
Even if the music was the worst, the depiction of abuse-as-pedagogy seemed pretty spot-on, comparisons to Black Swan otm. Loved Miles Teller too
― got a long list of ilxors (fgti), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 23:52 (nine years ago) link
preparing to have a watching party soon with a bunch of jazz drummer friends (none of us have seen it yet). :)
― lil urbane (Jordan), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 23:58 (nine years ago) link
man this might kill the mood of the power, and this is comin' from a dude that liked it
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:20 (nine years ago) link
*party
Oh man Jordan I'd love to be a fly on the wall at your screening. I still think this movie is total bs -- Black Swan was great as hag horror but silly as a movie about ballet.
― groundless round (La Lechera), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:26 (nine years ago) link
Yeah the last 15 minutes are gonna be ridiculous for any drummer to watch, make sure you're all light
In my classical experience, abusive teachers like this (lots of them too) would love to talk fondly about "the Russian method" where they ruler up kids' wrists and call scars of over-practice "marks of distinction". No heroes were made just a lot of wasted time and money.
Do wish there were more groups that'd have a conductor who's just stop to pace and glower, tho, good look
― got a long list of ilxors (fgti), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:28 (nine years ago) link
Oh yeah this movie should be avoided at all costs tbh
― got a long list of ilxors (fgti), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:29 (nine years ago) link
Conducting of the volume taper in last bit was lol
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:33 (nine years ago) link
the way J.K. Simmons is clapping out the tempo/counting in the tune in the one clip...I've never seen a band director, or any musician, anywhere, ever, start a piece by clapping like that.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:38 (nine years ago) link
I'd like to know if there are any elements in this film that are true to the experience of hot shit musical academy jazz bands. For example, given a numerical value, are there drummers that can hit a tempo exactly, minus any other frame of reference?
― Free Me's Electric Trumpet (Moodles), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:41 (nine years ago) link
you'd probably need a definition of exactly
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:45 (nine years ago) link
I mean hitting the exact numerical tempo
― Free Me's Electric Trumpet (Moodles), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:46 (nine years ago) link
prbly not. otherwise j.k. simmons would be locked up at NIST
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 01:15 (nine years ago) link
Well more to the point the "you're behind! You're ahead!" was so arbitrary and incorrect that by the time he expected a son to pull a BPM out of a hat I was like "oh right this fucking guy"
― got a long list of ilxors (fgti), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 02:05 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOCTkH2DdpA
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 02:21 (nine years ago) link
bobby mcferrin line got me
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 02:25 (nine years ago) link
but the joke hits a bit too close to home because the speed regulator on my technics table is broken
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 02:26 (nine years ago) link
I laughed at the Bar Mitzvah DJ line
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 02:47 (nine years ago) link
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, March 3, 2015 7:38 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yeah, this. I mostly don't care if this film "really gets music school" or not but that awkward, stiff "five six and" thing, guhhhh.
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 02:50 (nine years ago) link
I think Peter Erskine pointed out that even he'd have trouble getting a tempo from the way the guy counts it off.
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 02:52 (nine years ago) link
but maybe that's the whole point of the film?
― Unheimlich Manouevre (dog latin), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 11:52 (nine years ago) link
this movie made me profoundly uncomfortable at its end, and not in a good way
― vacuum head tree disease (imago), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 11:59 (nine years ago) link
Another pro musician and teacher friend points out that the guys practicing habits (straining, playing til fingers bleed etc ) would actually produce bad technique.
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 13:28 (nine years ago) link
(straining, playing til fingers bleed etc )
tbf, he's playing with those new serrated-metal drumsticks.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 13:37 (nine years ago) link
Andrew wk origin story
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 4 March 2015 13:55 (nine years ago) link
this film was utter horseshitSimmons was pretty good tho'Teller was amazing, that kid is gonna be great over the next five years
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 29 March 2015 03:27 (nine years ago) link
Conducting of the volume taper in last bit was lol― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, March 4, 2015
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, March 4, 2015
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 29 March 2015 03:33 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, this was way dumb. Kinda fun to watch and talk bullshit over though.
― circa1916, Sunday, 29 March 2015 03:54 (nine years ago) link
I had an internship with a guy a couple of years ago who majored in jazz drumming (not sure which school, but he dropped out) who did say that it was incredibly intense and unhealthy for him. Said he would basically practice until his hands were bleeding.
― circa1916, Sunday, 29 March 2015 04:01 (nine years ago) link
@ebaynetflix'Whiplash' made me really happy that I never viewed music like anyone in that film.
https://twitter.com/ebaynetflix/status/579897677065900033
― flappy bird (spazzmatazz), Sunday, 29 March 2015 07:14 (nine years ago) link
when the end credits for this came up i realized i'd gotten into a big fight with the writer/director on livejournal in 2005. woulda felt worse if it had been the editor.
― difficult listening hour, Sunday, 29 March 2015 10:35 (nine years ago) link
btw
Is there a similar film about an abusive director?― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, January 21, 2015 4:33 PM (2 months ago)
― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Monday, 30 March 2015 00:27 (nine years ago) link
I thought the visual style of Whiplash was very dated, the psychology didn't make any sense to me, the car crash seemed like awful writing, the big band concept would have made a lot more sense if it took place in the 30s, The Social Network told a similar story better and managed to say something abt contemporary society at the same time, Simmons' teaching technique and the concept of negative motivation didn't make much sense to me and had nothing to do with what I know about what motivated Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Billy Strayhorn, but I enjoyed the music.
Maybe I missed the point entirely, I sure was surprised to read Madonna's reaction in RS:
When the character said, ‘I’d rather be a 34-year-old genius who did something with his life, dead of a heroin overdose, than live to be 93 and do nothing’, I totally was like, ‘Yes’. That really resonated with me.
― niels, Sunday, 12 April 2015 18:00 (nine years ago) link
Reminds me of Lennon's response to "Hey Hey My My":
I hate it. Its better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. I don't appreciate worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or of dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison--its garbage to me. I worship the people who survive. Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo. They're saying John Wayne conquered cancer--he whipped it like a man. You know, I'm sorry that he died and all that--I'm sorry for his family--but he didn't whip cancer. It whipped him. I don't want Sean worshipping John Wayne or Sid Vicious. What do they teach you? Nothing. Death.
Sid Vicious died for what? So that we might rock? I mean its garbage, you know. If Neil Young admires that sentiment so much, why doesn't he do it? Because he sure as hell faded away and came back many times, like all of us. No thank you. I'll take the living and the healthy.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 12 April 2015 18:04 (nine years ago) link
curious to see what Madonna considers "nothing". iirc raising a family and living to see your grandkids and great-grandkids isn't "nothing".
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Sunday, 12 April 2015 18:04 (nine years ago) link
had my right hand inspected by a jazz drummer at a free workshop last nightother guy involved in the convo (bass player) asked if he was inspecting for callouses
― groundless round (La Lechera), Thursday, 16 April 2015 17:50 (nine years ago) link
um, what was he inspecting for?
― lil urbane (Jordan), Thursday, 16 April 2015 18:27 (nine years ago) link
honestly idk -- i know that my hands are strong (bony, but strong!) and also it was weird that he grabbed my hand and began to inspect it but i got a distinctly whiplashy feel to the interaction so i wanted to put it here. i still haven't seen the movie btw. i asked half-jokingly if he'd like to inspect my arm but he declined.
i went up to him after his set to say that i enjoyed it, told him i am also drummer (and how long i have been playing) and the inspection followed after a line of questioning intended to determine whether or not i was ready to participate in the workshop (it is an open jam workshop type thing).
― groundless round (La Lechera), Thursday, 16 April 2015 18:32 (nine years ago) link
sounds kinda icky
― lil urbane (Jordan), Thursday, 16 April 2015 18:42 (nine years ago) link
it def has never happened before i didn't feel like gross or anything it just seemed like an excessive measure of my dedication to grab my hand and inspect it. welcome to my world!
― groundless round (La Lechera), Thursday, 16 April 2015 18:47 (nine years ago) link
I asked my bridge teacher if she'd seen Whiplash after ridiculing me for leading away from an ace. She laughed
― badg, Thursday, 16 April 2015 19:43 (nine years ago) link
I have to admit this one sort of lost me when Teller and Reiser continued talking after Rififi started. After that I was all "Simmons slapped you...fuck you, you talked during a movie...You're bleeding?...Hit by a truck?...Fuck you, you talked during a movie."
Need to work on that. Simmons was a very convincing piece of human garbage tho, and I'm very excited for the good movies Teller will do in the future between all the paycheck stuff he'll most certainly take on.
― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 02:45 (nine years ago) link
i watched "keep on, keeping on" last night and it was everything this movie wasn't and is highly recommended.clark terry was a helluva guy
― Premise ridiculous. Who have two potato? (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 04:22 (nine years ago) link
This is a pretty cool interpretation of Whiplash
definitely interesting to think of the film as a manifestation of an aspiring musician's anxieties
― Free Me's Electric Trumpet (Moodles), Sunday, 10 May 2015 15:30 (nine years ago) link
this is a thoroughly silly movie. lots of unintentional hilarity.
but then, i also woke up in the middle of the night after an incredibly vivid anxiety dream/nightmare about missing a gig with my band.
― lil urbane (Jordan), Thursday, 25 June 2015 13:53 (eight years ago) link