‘Whiplash”

Susan Granger’s review of “Whiplash” (Sony Pictures Classics)

Writer/director Damien Chazelle (“Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench”) draws on memories of his own days as a music student to create this compelling coming-of-age drama about a prodigy whose ambition is to be a celebrated jazz drummer, another Buddy Rich or Gene Krupa.

19 year-old Andrew (Miles Teller) is a first-year student at a prestigious Manhattan musical conservatory. Obsessively driven to succeed, partly by the failure of his ineffectual father’s (Paul Reiser) writing career, Andrew impresses everyone who listens to him, particularly instructor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), whose abortive music career has made him embittered and resentful of kids with potential.

Clad in black, Fletcher is an impatient, sadistic perfectionist who not only bullies and belittles his pupils but also pits them against one another by ruthlessly forcing them to compete for a spot in the school’s elite jazz band. So Andrew must contend with both a fellow newcomer (Austin Stowell) and an upperclassman (Nate Lang), while Fletcher cruelly accuses him of being a “retard,” “pansy ass” and “tonal catastrophe.”

Citing tough love, sociopathic Fletcher’s excuse is that his job is “to push people beyond what was expected of them.” He says the two worst words a teacher can say to a student are “Good job.”

Succumbing to Fletcher’s monstrous “practice” imperatives, Andrew relinquishes his girlfriend (Melissa Benoist) and all semblance of a normal life. But it’s odd that there’s no scene showing the tormented students commiserating with one another, since 29 year-old Damien Chazelle stresses the “anything for art” theme that has propelled cinematic stories going back to Michael Powell’s “The Red Shoes” (1948), starring Moira Shearer.

Likeable Miles Teller fulfills the promise of his work in “The Spectacular Now,” while veteran character actor J.K. Simmons delivers a flawless supporting performance.

(FYI: the title comes from a compelling composition by the late Hank Levy, which Miles Teller plays, along with Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.”)

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Whiplash” is an abusive yet electrifying 8, defining the parameters of artistic sacrifice.

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