Netflix is far from immune to losing some of its best movies from other studios.
April 30 will be the last day several great titles will be available on Netflix, including the 2014 drama Whiplash.
Damien Chazelle wrote and directed the film based on a short film he made with J.K. Simmons a year earlier. Simmons returned for the full-length movie, with future Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller in the other leading role.
Teller and Simmons were electrifying together and they powered this modestly budgeted $3.3 million film into a $50.4 million hit that was widely met with critical acclaim. Now, there’s less than a week before Whiplash leaves, and this is the one great movie on Netflix that you need to make the time to see before it disappears from the streaming service.
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Miles Teller’s Breakthrough Performance Still Rules
Before Teller was cast in Whiplash, he only had a handful of prominent roles in the industry. This film elevated Teller to leading man status thanks to his outstanding turn as Andrew Neiman, a 19-year-old who wants to be a jazz drummer more than anything in the world.
Andrew’s character doesn’t start out fully formed. He’s painfully shy and doesn’t come out of his shell unless he’s performing. Through the course of the film, Andrew lets his ambition transform his personality and not always for the better. Even after landing Nicole (Melissa Benoist) as his girlfriend, Andrew still values his dreams more than the real people in his life.
This is driven home several times during the film, but especially when Andrew practices so hard that his fingers bleed. He wants to be the best jazz drummer possible, even if it threatens to destroy him.
J. K. Simmons’ Terence Fletcher Is an Unforgettable Nightmare
Andrew’s music mentor is Terence Fletcher (Simmons), a jazz instructor at the prestigious Shäfer Conservatory. Fletcher is the amalgamation of every overly harsh teacher you’ve ever had, and he’s probably worthy of a trigger warning.
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Fletcher unleashes verbal and psychological abuse on his students that can be truly difficult to watch. It’s a role tailor-made for Simmons, who seems to be able to turn on Fletcher’s scorn and rage at a moment’s notice. That makes him a terrifying figure in the film because he knows how to destroy his students’ dreams and hopes with just a few choice words. And he’s completely merciless, even with Andrew.
There’s no question that Fletcher is the villain in this story, and yet Andrew always has this small hope that he’ll finally get the approval he so desperately needs from him. Simmons is so good in his role that he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and numerous other accolades for the film.
It’s a Drama That Plays Like a Thriller
There aren’t any twists in Whiplash that transform the story into something it isn’t supposed to be. The revelations that emerge about Fletcher seem like the natural progression of everything he did before that point in the movie. Once Andrew learns about a scandalous incident from Fletcher’s past, it’s less of a surprise and more of a confirmation that he’s a monster. And he never needed anything more than harsh words to break anyone.
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Whiplash is a beautifully filmed drama with two exceptional performances from Teller and Simmons. But it also plays a lot like a thriller as the audience watches just how far Andrew will go for perfection. His self-destructive tendencies are readily apparent, but the audience is forced to wonder if Andrew can ever really pull back and see what he’s doing to himself. Fletcher may be his nemesis, but Andrew’s overpowering ambition is his greatest enemy. That’s why Whiplash is so incredibly compelling as Andrew’s struggle reaches its natural conclusion.
Whiplash is streaming on Netflix.
