When the Oscar Went II

The Oscar for Best Picture went to Birdman (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) <1> in 2015.  Also nominated for Best Picture that year was Whiplash (Damien Chazelle).

II.

Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) has come to New York's exclusive Shaffer Conservatory with the goal of becoming a great jazz drummer.  Not just great in its generalized sense, mind you.  Neiman, yet to turn twenty, seeks the greatness of a Buddy Rich.  It made me smile, this sheer youthful scale of Neiman's ambition.  I was smiling again when introduced to Shaffer conductor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons).
       
Fletcher's strategies to elicit the best from his musicians are drawn from various kinds of abuse.  He is rude and vulgar; he taunts and browbeats.  He is prone to be blistering if his exacting musical standards are not met.  He won't hesitate to use physical force, either.  In an early scene when Andrew is having trouble with Fletcher's tempo, he throws a chair at the drummer, and contemptuously slaps him in the face.  

There is no compulsory reason that Andrew, and the other musicians, should put up with Fletcher's bullying.  But because Fletcher's reputation as a conductor might make them the players that achieve professional success, these musicians don't (or won't) just walk away.  As a viewer I am free to smile, however, at Fletcher's posturing as some kind of perfectionist tyrant.  Without the authority Shaffer affords him in the film, the spectacle of Fletcher's power-riffing would be laughable; me, I smiled.

III.

Once it's been established that Fletcher recognizes Andrew's ambition and talent, the narrative focuses on the tense psychological dance between mentor and student.  Fletcher is relentless with Andrew's playing, till Neiman's hands bleed, and the drums are marked with his blood.  Whatever we might think of Fletcher's brand of instruction is one matter.  It does seem almost inevitable, though, that Andrew will eventually snap under Fletcher's barrage of aggression tactics.

He does.  At a public performance, the conductor is just dismissive enough to Andrew at the wrong moment, and Neiman lunges at him, bringing Fletcher crashing down on the stage.  Leading to that moment, there has been some fine acting by Teller and Simmons, in their respective roles.  
  
IV.

Whiplash offers an enticing selection of vigorous jazz on its soundtrack.  The film shows us how that music is made - the ferocious efforts it might take to make it - and as such, is suggestive of music's dionysian energies.
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<1>BMT. "Feathers Of A Birdman" (September 2015), and "When The Oscar Went" (March 2014).