The Movie Whiplash: How Can You Like Something That Was So Wrong

Somebody at work asked if I have seen the movie, “Whiplash.” I told them it’s funny you ask because I saw it this weekend and I have a lot of things to say about it.

I liked the story, the two main characters, the girlfriend, Paul Reiser (yes, that was him as the dad), the scenery, the way it was shot, the music, and the passion. But the movie got the realism of art school wrong. That was the important part of the movie. The movie centered  around a 19 year old attending  art school. Shaffer Conservatory of Music doesn’t exist in real life. I get it, that was suppose to be a Julliard type college or maybe even Julliard. Andrew mentioned that he went to the best art school in the country. It didn’t look that way to me. It looked like an empty inner city high school. Another problem is that there are no teachers at Julliard that act like JK Simmons character. Julliard has the same type of professors that Harvard and Yale have. There is no yelling, there is no slapping, There is no crying, There is no sweating. There is no bleeding. It's a very professional and serious place. Who on earth would subject  themselves to a crazy professor like JK Simmons.  Remember, the writers were suppose to be portraying a frilly art school. It played more like a military institution. If you’re paying $30,000 a semester and you’re suppose to be taught to play an instrument but instead you’re yelled at my bet is that you’re going to speak with a school administrator right away.

Miles Teller who played Andrew trained on the drums like he was going into a boxing match. If you are bleeding and have blisters on your hands you’re going to be a bad drummer. Your hands have to be in perfect condition. I laughed when he put his ailing hands in a bucket of ice.

I laughed at parts when you weren’t suppose to laugh.

The students acted like high school students instead of educated college age students.

With all it’s problems I still liked the movie. It entertained me.  I was never bored where I had to reach for my laptop. I was interested in it from beginning to end. We’re attracted to fantasy sometimes. That’s what it was. Who knows, maybe the writer of Whiplash will come out and say this was a nightmare he had when he was learning to play drums.