WHIPLASH(v): A strong jerk for us all

Whiplash is a movie about Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) who wants to be one of the great drummers and leave his mark on the world. The movie traces his journey at the cut-throat Shaffer conservatory. One of the main characters of the movie is Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) who is a music teacher. He leads a studio band of his handpicked musicians to the most competitive jazz competitions and Andrew is one of these handpicked musicians. At the beginning it is as if Fletcher sees a star student in Andrew and towards the end of the movie even says that he brought in another drummer only as motivation for Andrew. But Fletcher is not a hearts and compliments kind of guy. He pushes and pushes his students till they either break or become perfect. According to him there are no words in the English dictionary more harmful than ‘good job’. He pushed and pushed Andrew further and the question is will he be perfect or will he break? 

Miler teller and J.K. Simmons, both, give exceptional performances In Whiplash. J.K. Simmons portrays the fearful Terrance Fletcher to perfection. His gestures and words are both menacing and leave us feeling exactly the way Andrew might be feeling at that moment. Miler Teller embodies the scared, confused, unsure yet talented Andrew Neyman beautifully. We can feel his fear, pain and hard work through his expressions and body language. Great acting combined with Damien Chazelle’s acting and Tom Cross’s crisp editing make this movie reverberate within all our hearts.

After watching Whiplash, I was momentarily left feeling lost. The movie is so crisp and exciting that your body starts to vibrate to the thumps of the drum. But when it ends so abruptly you wonder what was it all for? One of the reasons this movie is so powerful and leaves such a drastic impact is because of the fast pace and the abrupt end. It takes you on a musical roller coaster and then throws you back out with a lot to think. Another reason why it is so powerful is because it addressees something that we all feel at one point or another, the need to push ourselves, the need to be great at what we do, the need to do something worthwhile... It's painful and beautiful at the same time and thus leaves us writhing with emotions.

Was Fletcher a negative influence or positive one? Was his method of teaching really molding greatness or inflicting emotional torture? What did his approval at the end of the movie mean to Andrew? 

This movie gives us a lot to think about and an overriding urge to do something worthwhile with our own lives. Thus, it’s safe to say even though Andrew’s journey ends abruptly for us, the feeling and emotions stay with us for a long time. Its not just Andrew's life but a universal story of how suffering can give rise to beauty and art.

  

The enigma that was Alan Turing: THE IMITATION GAME

SOMETIMES IT IS THE PEOPLE WHO NO ONE IMAGINES ANYTHING OF WHO DO THE THINGS THAT NO ONE CAN IMAGINE

The movie is based on the mathematician Alan Turing who designed a machine (Christopher) which broke the enigma code that shortened the Second World War by 2 years and saved millions of lives. 

Inventions don’t happen overnight. They take countess sleepless nights, even years to happen. But the beauty of The Imitation Game is that though it captures the process of the invention of this great machine that broke the unbreakable Nazi code of enigma, it also captures the social and emotional aspects of Alan Turing’s life. The idea was his but it was made possible only by the collective support and work of those on his team. 

This movie could have completely missed the mark and turned out to be exceptionally uninteresting but rather it was perfect, capturing all the technicalities and all the emotions. You feel excitement when the code is finally broken and the machine complete. You feel sympathy and sadness for Alan Turing. He brought the Second World War to an end but what did he get in return? Hormonal medication to cure his ‘homosexuality’...

Thus, the true enigma was the man who cracked the code. Alan Turing, a lonely boy had but one friend, Christopher for whom his first homosexual feelings developed (he later goes on to name his machine as Christopher). Thus he was a lonely boy with homosexual feeling and an obsession with solving puzzles. But not only did he crack the Nazi code he also married Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) so that she could stay and help break the code and do the work that she was so good at despite him being homosexual. He then tells her that he only married her because he wanted her help and now that the code was broken she should leave only because he wanted to protect her from the soviet agents amongst them. Also, when he was tried for ‘gross indecency’ he choose hormonal treatment over 2 years in prison because he did not want to lose Christopher (his machine) thus giving us a peek into the psyche of a child who never got over the fact that his first love had died and left him alone. 

Benedict Cumberbatch, playing the role of Alan Turing, is exceptional as ever. Keira Knightley and Mathew Goode (playing Hugh Alexander) also gave exceptional performances. The movie was written beautifully. While being full of emotions it was also very crisp, not dragging at any point. It was fast as well as slow, and perfectly so. So, Hats off to Morten Tyldum (director), William Goldenberg (editor) and the rest of the cast of The Imitation Game.

Alan Turing is a legend. I say this not only because of what he achieved but also because of what he endured. It was the suffering that Alan Turing had endured that made his life heart-breaking. He did not just break the enigma but he died without ever being recognized for it. He was socially awkward but he saved millions of lives. He was the man behind Britain’s victory in the Second World War but he was charged with ‘gross indecency’ and was chemically castrated. He kept the government's secrets while his own secrets were laid bare. It was all this that made his life even more beautiful. This reminded me of a quote from Troy, “The gods envy us. They envy us because we are mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.” Thus the thing that made this movie truly beautiful for me was suffering. 

Towards the end of the movie, the character talks about his paper ‘the imitation game’. The paper talks about a game in which the judge asks a few questions and then determines what his subject is. The question to ask ourselves is, are we human? Or are we things incapable of emotion?