Prime Video movie of the day: Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is so intense, you might forget to breathe
Imagine Full Metal Jacket, but with jazz
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Every day, we cut through the bottomless list of streaming options and recommend something to watch. See all ourNetflix movie of the daypicks, or ourPrime Video movie of the daychoices.
On paper,Whiplash(now available to stream onPrime Video) sounds – if you pardon the music-based pun – terrible. On the screen, though it’s an astonishing piece of theatrical melodrama. ImagineFull Metal Jacketbut, instead of Vietnam, the battleground here is jazz. Or, how aboutOne Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nestset in a music school, rather than a hospital.
Wait, where are you going? Come back! Let me explain.
Whiplashis a deceptively simple story: it tells the tale of Andrew (Miles Teller), a young student drummer who’s picked for the best band in the music school, and the teacher who wants him to be excellent. But that teacher is Fletcher, played by J.K. Simmons (Invincible, the Tobey MaguireSpider-Manmovie trilogy) – and Fletcher is more of a dread- and fear-inducing drill sergeant than any kind of tutor. All that matters to Fletcher is the music and, if getting it right means tearing his pupil apart then, well, that’s the price of perfection.
Is Whiplash worth watching on Prime Video?
Definitely. Here’sGQ, whose reviewer simply tells you to “go and seeWhiplash. It’s as simple as that.Whiplashis incredible. I really can’t believe how goodWhiplashis. I can’t stop telling people aboutWhiplash.”
That’s largely because of the vitriolic, harsh, but incredibly talented performance that Simmons delivers. Indeed, he’sOne Flew Over…’s Nurse Ratched with a conductor’s baton, withThe New Yorkerdescribing his display as thus: “Simmons is as taut as piano wire, twanging with impatience and intolerance… What lends verve to Damien Chazelle’s film is not so much the lure of jazz as the power struggle between master and pupil, plus a rare honesty about the costs of the craze for excellence.”
Empirewas similarly effusive in its praise, with its scribe opining: “In the tradition of great thrillers it has an ordinary man trying to best a much trickier foe, and like great sports movies it has a rookie intent on winning everything. It just finds those things in a place nobody usually looks”. Sure, the plot sounds pretty dull but, adds Empire’s reviewer: “watch the film and it will spit you out elated, exhausted and cheering for an encore.”
Need even more evidence that Whiplash is unmissable on one of the world’s best streaming services? Look no further than its critical and audience scores onRotten Tomatoes, both of which sit at a more than healthy 94%. If that’s not proof enough that it’s a stunning piece of cinema – one that deserves a spot on ourbest Prime Video movieslist, too – I don’t know what is.
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir,Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock bandUnquiet Mind.
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