Making a successful movie is easier than it seems. you only deserve the right ingredients for the perfect recipe. Music is always one of these, especially if you choose classic or jazz, more sophisticated and indie. Then, tell a story of a gifted boy or girl who’s obsessed with perfection and put a little psychological disease and a sadic mentor. Find the right actors and serve hot to the major festivals around the world.
This happened for The Concert, Black Swan and now for Whiplash. A talented jazz drummer wants to be the best ever and decides that his goal must be achieved at every cost. Even his son of a bitch teacher wants him to be perfect and drives him crazy.
This is the summary and actually, there’s no more to say of this “Black swan meets Full Metal Jacket with drums”. Demian Chazelle is incredibly smart building a movie that must like to a new generation of film critics, climbing the heights of the major awards thanks to the incredible word of mouth across festivals and a perfect indie oriented marketing strategy from Sony. You know, the same guys of The Interview, a very bad movie turned into an example of freedom.
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Whiplash is not that bad but is not even so good.
We face a simple and flat narrative structure with bi-dimensional characters and predictable twists, but actually when you have an amazing actor like J.K. Simmons you can do whatever you want and Miles Teller is perfectly hateful, just like he’s requested to.
Chazelle will fly to a huge production very soon and will probably be the next big thing among indie/major businesses. Whiplash will turn out a cult movie and maybe one day someone will even ask: “Why?”