“Whiplash,” directed by Damien Chazelle

Movie, 2014

A film whose plot could be summarised as one man struggles to teach another man who struggles to learn how to play drums. What this precis omits, however, is a psychological study which all too often, and all too readily feels farcical and overbaked. A film which tries to focus on the obsessions of a couple of people, which in succeeding in its main aim, leaves everything else in its wake. While all this carries some power, the blanks and omissions will leave other questions and areas of interest glaringly unexplored. So, some interest and perspective, but like so many other films about music, this one founders on many levels.

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