I can't understand why the writer/director chose jazz as his milieu except as a contrivance.
Or maybe because he's a former high-school jazz drummer and Buddy Rich nut.
da croupier OTM re: the movie's attitude to Fletcher's philosophy.
― Minaj moron (Re-Make/Re-Model), Thursday, 29 January 2015 13:03 (nine years ago) link
I really wished at some point someone would have told JK Simmons that nobody likes this kind of music. Or I wish the movie was inspired or compelling enough to make me not think of that.
― Nerdstrom Poindexter, Thursday, 29 January 2015 17:01 (nine years ago) link
anyone seen this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Piano_%28film%29
― Number None, Friday, 30 January 2015 18:07 (nine years ago) link
i should see this, huh?
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 30 January 2015 18:08 (nine years ago) link
― Number None
Yes. Moderately entertaining, very very silly.
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Friday, 30 January 2015 23:27 (nine years ago) link
Retrospectively in light of Whiplash, it's obvious that Chazelle bashed the script out as a lark.
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Friday, 30 January 2015 23:28 (nine years ago) link
with no J.K. Simmons to call him a pampered fairy fuck
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 31 January 2015 02:46 (nine years ago) link
Bill Bruford's take : http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/film/article4339715.ece
It's behind a paywall but here's his bit:
I am thrilled somebody has made a mostly realistic movie about what good drummers do. I didn’t go through an academic institution or conservatory like that — I learnt my stuff on the job — but the depiction of high-level east-coast jazz training seems about right. It’s highly competitive. The foul-mouthed instructor is, I think, caricatured to ask the question: will you get better musicians if you intentionally inflict emotional stress, or do you just get Marine cadets? The quintessential bully that I knew of was a drummer and an ex-Marine — Buddy Rich.I don’t think that intimidation is a useful motivational technique, though. The motivation is, or should be, intrinsic, not extrinsic. That said, the work has got to be done if you want to change things — some say it’s about 10,000 hours for high-level domain change. That’s roughly the ten years from mid-teens to mid-twenties when you get so into it that nothing and no one else matters. Yes, it’s really work. Some interpret the idea of the musical “gift” as being the desire to do the work. If you don’t have that kind of gift, no amount of Fletcher’s abuse is going to help. If you do have it, no amount of abuse is necessary.Great drummers are often obsessional, though; not great marriage prospects. After you have the skills, you have to get a life. What are you bringing to the table? Music production on almost any level is enormously collaborative and demands high levels of people skills, and therein lies much of the attraction. Drummers tend to perceive that they need other people more than other people need them. That’s why they’re reliable, have a van and usually know where the gig is.Has there ever been blood on the cymbals? I do remember once taking a swing at Chris Squire, the bass player with Yes, but that might have been on extra-musical grounds. Musical corners were hard fought, but I like to think with honour and respect for the other point of view. There are always several ways to skin a cat. Try forming your own band: then you get to do it all your own way. Then see how you like it. Suddenly, the other guys in the band don’t seem so dumb after all. No blood, though.I can’t remember anyone shouting “Not my tempo!” at me, like Fletcher does in the film, other than the promoter at Iridium, a venue in New York, but he was as mad as a hatter. The best musicians — the guys at the top — are generally sweethearts: confident, secure and generous. Their interest is in making the music work, as it should be yours. It’s the snake on the second rung below that you want to watch out for.It’s generally pretty easy for a band leader to get the most out of musicians. Pick the best guys you can (afford), give them some emotional input and responsibility at the musical level, light the blue touch paper and stand back out of the way. If they’re good, they’ll intuitively know what to do. Would Miles Teller get a gig as a drummer? Beyond doubt. Nice guy, he’s committed, swings, can read — someone you’d be happy to have around.
― めんどくさかった (Matt #2), Sunday, 1 February 2015 11:33 (nine years ago) link
Is there a similar film about an abusive director?
Well there's "Beware of a Holy Whore" by RW Fassbinder, based on the abusive director, er, RW Fassbinder.
― A trumpet growing in a garden (Tom D.), Sunday, 1 February 2015 15:56 (nine years ago) link
There's also Major Payne.
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Sunday, 1 February 2015 16:22 (nine years ago) link
That’s why they’re reliable, have a van and usually know where the gig is.
Can i get a lol
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 1 February 2015 17:25 (nine years ago) link
Didn't expect a Bruford piece. Are there many more of these floating around? I wanna hear Neil Peart now.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 1 February 2015 17:41 (nine years ago) link
That said, the work has got to be done if you want to change things — some say it’s about 10,000 hours for high-level domain change. That’s roughly the ten years from mid-teens to mid-twenties when you get so into it that nothing and no one else matters. Yes, it’s really work. Some interpret the idea of the musical “gift” as being the desire to do the work. If you don’t have that kind of gift, no amount of Fletcher’s abuse is going to help. If you do have it, no amount of abuse is necessary.
interesting. two things1) i just calculated and i have completed 855/10,000 -- where did this idea of 10K come from originally? 2) "no amount of abuse is necessary" otm
― groundless round (La Lechera), Sunday, 1 February 2015 18:19 (nine years ago) link
1) Malcolm Gladwell
― the gabhal cabal (Bob Six), Sunday, 1 February 2015 18:31 (nine years ago) link
I don't think the movie was agreeing with the approach of JK Simmons' character while it didn't really go to any length to condemn it either. But LL is otm. For every musician that might hypothetically respond like Teller to the abuse, the remainder respond by developing PTSD symptoms
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Sunday, 1 February 2015 19:20 (nine years ago) link
From a Chazelle interview: 'Fletcher’s mindset is, “If I have 100 students, and 99 of them are, because of my teaching, ultimately discouraged and crushed from ever pushing this art form, but one of them becomes Charlie Parker, it was all worth it.” That’s not a mentality I share, but in many ways, that’s the story of the movie.'
― Minaj moron (Re-Make/Re-Model), Sunday, 1 February 2015 19:45 (nine years ago) link
somehow I wish the movie had ended with a freight train crashing through the auditorium and killing everybody on stage right after Fletcher flashes his bedeviled grin
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Saturday, 21 February 2015 19:32 (nine years ago) link
xp I read the interview on the dissolve and it was clear that Chazelle believes in tough love, and that's where the dynamism of the drama comes from; the drama would be inert if the movie were simply "this guy is an abusive asshole and this other guy puts up with it." Teller needs "tough love" and pain and possibly even fear to become great, but Simmons takes it too far. Chazelle is pushing harmful pop psych notions of motivation and learning, and it's obvious that people buy it when, e.g., the reviewer from rogerebert.com is saying maybe Simmons' character has a point. If not 99 out of 100, why not 49 out of a 100? Would that be acceptable to Chazelle? I think there's some line there that is acceptable, whereas I've seen more socially acceptable forms of "tough love" at work, and I don't think they're motivating, pedagogically efficacious, and they're obviously harmful to some contingency of the group being taught.
How many jazz greats have stories of pain and fear playing a part in their development as musicians and composers? How many put forward this mentality:
Practice is about beating your head against the wall. So if you’re actually serious about getting better at something, there’s always going to be an aspect of it that’s not fun, or not enjoyable. If every single thing is enjoyable, then you’re not pushing yourself hard enough, is probably how I feel.
There's something almost intrinsically pleasing about tone and timbre and rhythm that soothes the tedium of practicing an instrument. I understand that excellence requires hard work and high standards, but is the feeling of "beating your head against the wall" really a normal narrative among those who excel? Putting aside Deci, Ryan, et al., I'd say that the fact that the "beating your head against the wall" narrative isn't the predominant one among those who excel at things suggests that Chazelle is wrong about the nature of teaching, practice, and excellence, and his ideas about those things are pervasive and harmful enough for me to object to this movie and its extremely exaggerated figure of a person who takes "tough love" too far (who is, according to Chazelle, just a bully).
― bamcquern, Saturday, 21 February 2015 20:27 (nine years ago) link
the opening fifteen minutes of this were the lamest my-first-screenplay garbage i've seen in years.
― call all destroyer, Saturday, 21 February 2015 21:08 (nine years ago) link
harsh
― the gabhal cabal (Bob Six), Saturday, 21 February 2015 22:09 (nine years ago) link
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