1 - Whiplash

    An aspiring drummer at a prestigious music school deals with an adversarial band director.
    It’s hard to sort through my feelings about this movie.
    I worked at Berklee, which has less of a pure focus on jazz.  The students were incredibly skilled and disciplined.  But I had a better sense that they had a feeling of joy when they played.
    There’s a phase that most musicians go through, a certain category of player that learns to focus on technical prowess as a way of furthering their fascination with music.  It’s a drive not just to excel, but to actually be regarded as “the best.”  At least this idea is mentioned, albeit in passing, in this movie.  Someone points out that grading these band performances is a subjective thing, which the lead argues against.
    We see a smattering of the joy that music brings, but it’s very small.  Most of the joy in this movie comes from the lead beating his competition, driving himself further.
    The teacher is brutal.  He’s cruel, dehumanizing, and perpetually unhappy.  It’s actually funny when he casually inserts “have a good time” into his pre-show address to the band.  While we spend most of this movie learning to hate him, there’s always this inkling that he’s just doing this to push his students.  He has one scene where he acts like a normal person, and he states just this: he pushes his students as far as possible in hopes of creating another jazz great.
    I guess I just don’t see the point of his mission.  It makes no sense when you view music as something that is good simply because it is.  Would it be acceptable to persuade Sid Vicious not to play simply because he would never be Mozart?  It’s ridiculous.  It’s an annoyance that the movie never seems to address this problem.

    I grew up with classical music all around me.  My mom is surprisingly elitist about classical music.  She hates jazz.  She has a lot of contempt for most pop music.  I think this approach to music takes most of the fun out of it.  If you can’t find something to enjoy in any piece of music, you’re missing out.  It’s shortsighted.  I think this is the hallmark of a person who has focused too narrowly.  When their enjoyment requires the music be in a particular style, a particular pace, or “interesting” enough… this just means they’re bored with music.

    I’m not sure what I think of this movie.  It might change over time.