Jazzed Up Oscar Contender

Gut-wrenching Whiplash is one 2014's best films

Jazz is probably not high on many people’s lists when it comes to interesting topics for a movie, but in the hands of writer/director Damien Chazelle, it is the impetus for one of the most intense, gut-wrenching and flat-out best films of 2014, Whiplash.

Miles Teller plays Andrew, a jazz drummer at the prestigious Schaffer Music Conservatory in New York City. He, along with every other student there, hopes to catch the eye of Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), the intimidating and exacting teacher who leads the school’s lead jazz band.

The way Miles Teller attacks the set, combined with key shots of bloodied hands and sweat-drenched drums, will have even audience members gasping for breath.

But Andrew’s dreams soon turn into the stuff of nightmares, as Fletcher, while praising Andrew in private, takes almost every opportunity he can get to degrade him in public, all in an effort to make Andrew the best he can be. Andrew, with an obsession to become one of the all-time jazz greats, can do little but push forward as best he can.

Chazelle ramps up the suspense of the film with kinetic camera movements that match the rising intensity of the story. The camera zooms in on faces and hands, swoops across the room, and, appropriately, whips back and forth between characters to create an action feeling in an environment where very little action takes place.

The drum set does contain a lot of action, and the combination of Teller’s performance and Chazelle’s filmmaking turns his playing into the stuff of legend. There’s only so much of the playing that you can fake, and the way Teller attacks the set, combined with key shots of bloodied hands and sweat-drenched drums, will have even audience members gasping for breath.

But it’s the powerful struggle between Andrew and Fletcher, and stellar performances by Teller and Simmons, that make the movie. Teller literally puts his sweat, blood and tears into the role, and he makes you believe that Andrew would do anything to accomplish his goal.

Simmons’ bald head, craggy face and bulging veins are scary enough, but the way he inhabits the punishing Fletcher puts him over the top. Both he and Teller deserve Oscar nominations.

Whiplash is not the descent into madness that Black Swan was, but it’s another brutal and thrilling look at what can happen when people let their obsessions get the better of them.

Miles Teller has both the acting and drumming chops in Whiplash.

Miles Teller in Whiplash

Photo by Daniel McFadden Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Miles Teller has both the acting and drumming chops in Whiplash.

Movie Review

Daniel Craig searches for elusive new bond in audacious film Queer

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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