Rent Whiplash (2014)

4.0 of 5 from 1012 ratings
1h 42min
Rent Whiplash Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
  • General info
  • Available formats
Synopsis:
Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is an ambitious young jazz drummer, in pursuit of rising to the top of his elite music conservatory. Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), an instructor known for his terrifying teaching methods, discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into the top jazz ensemble, forever changing the young man's life. But Andrew's passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher pushes him to the brink of his ability and his sanity.
Actors:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Tyler Kimball, , Adrian Burks,
Directors:
Producers:
Jason Blum, David Lancaster, Michel Litvak, Helen Estabrook
Writers:
Damien Chazelle
Others:
Damien Chazelle, Tom Cross, Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley
Studio:
Sony
Genres:
Drama, Music & Musicals
Collections:
2015, A History of Gay Cinema: According to Hollywood, Back to School: Best Films Featuring Teachers, CinemaParadiso.co.uk Through Time, Drama Films & TV, Films & TV by topic, Top Films
Awards:

2015 BAFTA Best Supporting Actor

2015 BAFTA Best Editing

2015 BAFTA Best Sound

2015 Oscar Best Supporting Actor

2015 Oscar Best Editing

2015 Oscar Best Sound Mixing

2014 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Dramatic

2014 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award Dramatic

BBFC:
Release Date:
01/06/2015
Run Time:
102 minutes
Languages:
English Audio Description, English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
Dutch, English, English Hard of Hearing, French, Hindi, Polish, Spanish
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 2.40:1
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • Commentary with Writer/Director Damien Chazelle and J.K. Simmons
  • An Evening at the Toronto International Film Festival with Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons and Damien Chazelle
BBFC:
Release Date:
01/06/2015
Run Time:
107 minutes
Languages:
Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, English Audio Description Dolby Digital 5.1, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, English Hard of Hearing, French, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 2.40:1
Colour:
Colour
BLU-RAY Regions:
(0) All
Bonus:
  • Timekeepers: Famous drummers discuss their craft and passion for drumming
  • Whiplash Original Short Film with Optional Commentary
  • Deleted Scene
  • Commentary with Writer/Director Damien Chazelle and J.K Simmons
  • An Evening at the Toronto International Film Festival with Miles Teller, J.K Simmons and Damien Chazelle
BBFC:
Release Date:
28/09/2020
Run Time:
107 minutes
Languages:
Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, English Audio Description Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Atmos, English Dolby TrueHD 7.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English Hard of Hearing, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish
DVD Regions:
Region 0 (All)
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 2.35:1
Colour:
Colour
BLU-RAY Regions:
(0) All
Bonus:
  • Timekeepers: Famous Drummers Discuss Their Craft and Passion for Drumming
  • 'Whiplash' Original Short Film with Optional Commentary
  • Deleted Scene
  • Commentary with Writer/Director Damien Chazelle and J.K Simmons
  • An Evening at the Toronto International Film Festival with Miles Teller, J.K Simmons and Damien Chazelle

More like Whiplash

Found in these customers lists

Reviews (12) of Whiplash

Powerful but unpleasent to watch - Whiplash review by CP Customer

Spoiler Alert
17/10/2016

A group of young music students learning the skills to work together to produce amazing music, leaving each evening and able to socialise and discuss fond memories. That's what it should be like, but perhaps that wouldn't make a good movie!

The sadistic perfectionist teacher in this film obviously has a screw loose. He relentlessly uses targeted verbal, physical & psychological abuse in an attempt to force competitiveness and obedience, supposedly to get perfection from his students and find the next musical prodigy. This is a perfect example of how the means do not justify the end. To me the teacher's approach was so extreme as to be unbelievable in a Western educational establishment (except perhaps a military boot camp). None-the-less, at the end of the film I was left thinking and hoping there aren't parts of the world, such as Asia, where this sort of experience is a reality, and the pressure to succeed prevents individuals from escaping it.

4 out of 6 members found this review helpful.

Great, captivating and tense and somehow very touching - Whiplash review by TK

Spoiler Alert
20/03/2017

You can really relate to the story, it s very real somehow and J K Simmons is brilliant. Nice tempo as well, it keeps the tension up until the end. Best movie I ve watched in a while.

3 out of 3 members found this review helpful.

I would have given it six stars had they let me - Whiplash review by JK

Spoiler Alert
04/10/2018

Reviewers bought up on a diet of Boney M and Mantovani were never really going to like this film - let's be honest. This sort of jazz is musical Marmite. The sheer cleverness of the wit, the superb tightness of the band, the dark menace of the lighting were the textural underbelly which supported a tried and tested storyline - that was the whole point surely? If you were to listen to only one instrumental section of course it would sound thin and feeble in the same way that if you only took the plot at face value - bully eventually gets the best of pupil/recruit etc. - it would seem hackneyed. But the brilliance was how gorgeously all the instruments and all the film elements blended into the whole.

The lurve interest detracted a bit from the story line but presumably that was to illustrate how much his drum dedication usurped even desire.

3 out of 4 members found this review helpful.

Critic review

Whiplash review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

While jazz may be my preferred music choice for relaxation Whiplash is the exact opposite tone in its dramatization of a New York conservatory. The players are required to be perfect to the point where the bodies will breakdown. Fall short by even a hair and you’ll get a chair hurled at you by the perfectionist conductor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). The lengths that these boys have to go through for the glory of playing is so bitterly harsh and intense that football practice seems almost tranquil in comparison.

When drumming prodigy Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is accepted as a first-year to the conservatory, he witnesses the vicious expectations first-hand. Good is not good enough. Great is not great enough. If you’re only just great, chairs fly. Neiman just cannot deliver on the tempo which angers and frustrates Fletcher to no end. Fletcher does not genuinely display any true concern for his students. In addition to being physically destructive around them, he shouts and insults with the sharpest tongue. Not a shred of empathy or compassion is shown as he fears pulling back will hold these students back. He will not settle for anything less than the greatest jazz musicians out of his players.

Since drumming has been Neiman’s dream, he puts his all into this position. He practices and practices until his hands are cracked open and bleeding. He dunks his fists in cold water, dons a band-aid and keeps practicing. Harder and harder he forces himself to keep a tempo that he ends up going through band-aid after band-aid, blood splattering all over the drums and symbols. Even worse, Neiman now has competition for the lead as drummer of the conservatory. Pissed off at all of the alternates for drumming, Fletcher holds them in the studio for a battle of the best. Switching out player after player and cussing up a storm hoping one of them will finally hit the right tempo, Fletcher is determined to push.

Only after Neiman forces himself to the brink of a major meltdown in body and mind does he achieve Fletcher’s desires. Fletcher shouts “faster!” as Neiman struggles to keep the tempo going higher and higher. “FASTER!” he booms after kicking drums around the studio in anger. Neiman eventually hits the sweet spot just long enough to be acceptable for Fletcher. Wounds open and blood on the set, Fletcher calls the band back in stating they can now start. And that’s just for rehearsals. When the orchestra finally starts to compete in theater hearings, things grow far more intense and reach a rather violent boiling point.

As if it wasn’t implied, J.K. Simmons absolutely dominates this film as the diabolical Fletcher. He’s always been the master of the fast wit and crafty wordplay, but here he is completely in your face with his ferocity. The man is a frightening force of determination in how he condescends with vulgar words that break down even the most hardened musicians. He’s also mercilessly deceptive in how he strings along students to get the results he is seeking. The few moments where he appears calm and collected give a brief glimpse into his own psyche of how he views the makings of true jazz legends. But peer too long and you’ll be snapped back into his web of eternal shame.

Though J.K. deserves every ounce of credit for his performance, Miles Teller keeps up with him in a role just as strong. His boiling agony and frustration is present in every scene where he pushes his body to the limit. You can see that sweaty look on his face of pain and relate to that push of going just a bit further - being just a bit better. The loneliness of his sacrifices take their toll as his family seems far more infatuated with his brother’s football career. He realizes he’s going down a dark path when he makes the tough call to breakup with his girlfriend simply because he believes he couldn’t make it work with his practicing. So much appreciation lost and given up turns him into a bitter musician that begins to make costly mistakes to his playing, his education and his health.

As mesmerizing as a well-tuned band, Whiplash builds and builds on its own intensity until it eventually reaches something wonderful and worthy of its bark. The camera bobs and weaves from many different angles capturing Teller’s fast hands of music and Simmons’ fury in pacing. Both of these actors throw everything they have at the screen, throats sore and veins pulsating. Just like the goals their characters are aiming for, the two actors achieve an amazing performance from all their efforts. They are not great; they’re perfect.

Unlimited films sent to your door, starting at £15.99 a month.