Whiplash
The road to greatness can take you to the edge.
A drummer and his conductor push each other past cruelty in pursuit of a perfect tempo.
- Director
- Damien Chazelle
- Signature
- Drama · Emotional · Pacing
- Worldwide
- $50M
Who's in it
Cast
The billed ensemble, with character names. Open any performer for their Nutevio filmography.
The Nutevio profile
Movie DNA
How Whiplash actually feels to watch, measured on the twelve traits our editors track across every Nutevio title.
Story overview
What It's About
Spoiler-free. Read the analysis below for the full argument.
A drummer and his conductor push each other past cruelty in pursuit of a perfect tempo.
Nutevio Editorial Analysis
Why Whiplash works
Chazelle's film is shot like a boxing movie and cut like a drum solo. The question it refuses to answer — whether Fletcher's cruelty produced greatness or merely survived it — is what keeps it argued about.
Tom Cross's editing sets the tempo literally: the cutting rate accelerates with the music until the final nine minutes function as a single sustained performance.
J.K. Simmons plays Fletcher as a man who has convinced himself that abuse is pedagogy. The film never endorses him, but it does show why someone would believe him.
The last shot is a smile between two people who have destroyed each other, and it is deliberately impossible to call it a victory.
By The Nutevio Editors
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
Checking regional listings…
Why We Recommend It
Why It's Ranked
Whiplash appears in 3 Nutevio collections. Here is the argument behind each placement.
- Best Movies of the 2010s Ranked #4
Ranked #4 because micro-budget filmmaking with maximum voltage.
Two people and a tempo.
- Movies With Incredible Endings Ranked #6
Ranked #6 because no dialogue, total resolution.
Nine minutes of drums as an argument between two people.
- Drama Movies Ranked #12
Ranked #12 because rated 9.1 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest drama titles in the catalogue.
A drummer and his conductor push each other past cruelty in pursuit of a perfect tempo.
The record
Awards
6 wins · 5 nominations
Three Academy Awards from five nominations, including a Supporting Actor sweep for J.K. Simmons.
Academy Awards
3 wins · 5 nominations
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Film Editing
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Picture
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Sound
Grand prix du Festival de Deauville
1 win
- WinnerGrand prix du Festival de Deauville
Sundance Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic
1 win
- WinnerSundance Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic
Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award
1 win
- WinnerSundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award
The numbers
Box Office & Release
Whiplash returned 15.2× its budget worldwide.
- Budget
- $3M
- Opening weekend
- —
- Domestic gross
- —
- International gross
- —
- Worldwide gross
- $50M
- Release date
- Oct 10, 2014
- Runtime
- 1h 47m
- MPAA rating
- R
- Language
- English
- Country
- United States of America
Figures from the verified production record. Fields we cannot source are left blank rather than estimated.
Watch
Official Trailer
How it was made
Behind The Scenes
Production facts, technique and the decisions that shaped what ended up on screen.
Nineteen days
The feature was shot in nineteen days on a budget of roughly $3.3m, after a proof-of-concept short won Sundance.
Teller drummed for real
Miles Teller had played drums since childhood and performed most of the on-camera work himself, bleeding hands included.
In their words
Iconic Quotes
“There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job.'”
“Not quite my tempo.”
