Whiplash
To me, Whiplash is Damien Chazelle’s most perfect film, and is one of my personal favourites; top three for sure. Many people who I have talked to describe this film as a coming-of-age story, although I thoroughly disagree. Whiplash is a tale which tells a young drummer’s pursuit for perfection, and his aspiration to be considered as “one of the greats”, while he is psychologically tortured and tormented by Fletcher (played marvelously by J K Simmons). Fletcher may initially seem to have a very antagonistic presence, but without him, our protagonist Andrew would be lost to the mundane life he was previously living and was trying to stray far from. While Simmons is easily the standout in Whiplash with his Oscar-winning performance as the vulgar and abusive Terrence Fletcher, we should not overlook any of the other actors in the film, especially Miles Teller as Andrew who gives a captivating and relatable performance.
Out of any film I have ever watched, I would say that Whiplash has resonated with me deeply and is a cinematic experience that has genuinely changed my life. One scene in particular that has personally and heavily influenced me is the “good job” scene; the writing here is superb and the logic is flawless. Not only did this scene teach me a very valuable life lesson, but it deepens Fletcher’s character tenfold; without this scene, Fletcher would have been one-dimensional, but this scene makes an iniquitous character’s motives understandable, and somewhat deserving of sympathy.
It is genuinely bewildering to me that this is only Chazelle’s second feature film. Whiplash shows absolutely no signs of being helmed by an amateur filmmaker; the cinematography and editing work so well together and the film is just technically superb. While speaking on the technical aspects of the film, I cannot go without mentioning the sound design. It is incredible. The way Fletcher’s sessions with his students snap instantly between painfully tense silences and explosive bouts of snappy jazz music works so well, almost reflecting Fletcher’s calm and subdued anger before he launches into fiery bouts of rage, screaming abuse in his student’s faces.
As this review draws to a close, it seems appropriate to discuss Whiplash’s ending. Whiplash has an emotionally striking, tension filled and awe-inspiring ending, and the final scene barely has any words spoken, and rightfully so. Although upon further inspection, it is actually a very dark ending. By succeeding, Andrew continues to be Fletcher’s slave. This ending may be inspiring and worthy of cheer and applause, but beneath the surface there stands a dark question; would it be better for Andrew to fail and return to his mundane, boring life, or succeed to be one of the greats, but forever serve the one who used him? This was the first film of Chazelle’s that I had seen, and by this point, he had certainly grabbed my attention with this powerful work of art. After Whiplash, I could not wait to view everything else he had to offer.
La La Land
La La Land is Chazelle’s third film and is yet another showcase of Chazelle’s love for jazz music. This film received many award nominations, including Oscars, and was generally well loved by many audiences. That being said, I am not lying when I say that this is easily one of the biggest cinematic let-downs I have ever experienced. The build up to this film seemed to promise a stylish homage to old-school musicals, while retaining Chazelle’s trademark love for jazz, but what I was greeted with was a moderately entertaining musical with a central romance between the characters of Mia and Seb which proves to be cute, yet as shallow as a muddy puddle.
One major problem I have, not just with La La Land, but with “homage” movies in general, is that they just do not work. I understand Chazelle has a love for jazz and musicals but trying to recapture a certain kind of magic that Hollywood musicals radiated in the 50s and 60s just comes off as redundant and flat. Speaking of flatness, I really do not buy the central romance of La La Land. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are both very talented actors and attractive people, but the writing fails to establish any real personal love between these two. There are a few scenes in which I feel like I’m just watching Gosling and Stone endlessly flirt with each other, like they presumably would do while the cameras were off, and nothing particularly special comes of the romance. Because of this, the film just feels like it has wasted my time.
There is absolutely no doubt that La La Land is technically quite marvellous, containing plenty of well shot and choreographed musical numbers, almost reminiscent of the work that Gene Kelly exhibited in Singin’ in the Rain, in which he incorporated the camera in the scene like it was its own character. Most notably is the Planetarium scene, which actually has a rather magical and touching tone which I just wish was present throughout the entire film. La La Land, like its lead actors, is handsome, pretty, and charming, but that is exactly where my problems with the film start to form. On the surface, the film is quite sweet and relatively entertaining, and even harmless, but you start to dig a little bit deeper, and you realise there is nothing really there.
I’m honestly not too sure why this film has received such a spectacular reception. I like Damien Chazelle a lot and he is definitely a very talented and passionate filmmaker, but to go from an intense and emotional film with depth and layers in Whiplash, to this film which is as technically marvellous as it is completely superficial, just comes off as very disappointing. After all, one of the main reasons why I love Whiplash so much is because it delivers such a heavy emotional punch, and actually has a very appealing grungy aesthetic. La La Land, on the other hand, is just a little too glossy and lacking in any real emotionally profound message.
First Man
First Man tells the real-life story of Neil Armstrong, the first man to step foot on the moon. Once again, Chazelle has teamed up with Ryan Gosling to tell this story. Initially, I was slightly bewildered as to why Chazelle chose to direct this film; it didn’t bear much resemblance to his previous jazz-based films, so I wondered if he was going to be able to pull it off. Fortunately, one component of First Man that was present in Chazelle’s past work is the aspiration and drive of the title characters. While not aesthetically or cinematically similar to his previous work, the subtle motivations of the Chazelle’s lead character was the one consistent component that made me feel comfortable that First Man would feel like a true Damien Chazelle film. Hopefully, First Man would both continue to showcase the more significant drives of characters that Chazelle was known for, while simultaneously proving that Chazelle was developing his technical skills as a filmmaker.
Fortunately, First Man proves to be exactly this. First Man is without a doubt still a Damien Chazelle film, and vaguely similar to Whiplash beneath its surface, which is the aspect of First Man which I loved the most. Armstrong as a character, like the film itself, is appropriately subdued; he is a very stoic man with no real emotion on show, yet you can feel the true motivation behind his eyes. Specific moments throughout the film show Armstrong staring up at the moon, with separate shots showcasing the moon staring back at him, like a giant eye in the sky. Armstrong’s mission is evident, yet he barely speaks a word of it.
First Man is without a doubt a very personal tale. This is a film about Armstrong, not NASA or the USA, just a man with a personal mission. One fear I had prior to viewing this film was that it could have been an extremely patriotic film and come off as some form of glorified propaganda, but thankfully it did not come off this way at all. There are a few mentions of the space race and Russia here and there, but I only felt as if they were placed in the film for historical accuracy, and these moments never came off as overly patriotic. Even the first time Armstrong is launched into space in the Gemini project, there are no external shots of news footage or how the American public is reacting to the recent developments. The camera is placed inside the cockpit and never leaves until the scene is over, yet again highlighting Armstrong’s emotion without uttering a word. The way the metal creaks in this scene instilled a horrid sense of dread in me, and this is when I realised that Chazelle truly shines a director when there is no dialogue and he deals purely in the emotion of his characters. This is a raw form of true talent I have come to greatly appreciate in Damien Chazelle.
I was pleasantly surprised with First Man, and even felt that the dark, empty void of space was genuinely terrifying, and almost reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. While Gosling may be slightly emotionless in many scenes of the film, this was the only real flaw I could find with First Man. This only proves to me that Chazelle is a very talented filmmaker and I cannot wait to see what his next big screen project will be.
The Eddy
One thing I found to be very comforting about The Eddy is that it feels like much more of a return to form for Chazelle. While he definitely did a great job directing First Man, that film still felt slightly like Chazelle was stepping out of his comfort zone to deal with a special effect heavy biopic. The Eddy, on the other hand, sees Chazelle return to his roots, and from the offset, I was reminded of the grungy style of Whiplash that I love so much. Chazelle only directed the first two episodes of this show, so those will be the episodes I primarily focus on in this review.
The show begins set inside The Eddy, a jazz club owned by a character named Elliott, which resides on a street in the heart of Paris. Once again, The Eddy begins with Chazelle’s signature of a deadly quietly moment which is interrupted in a split second by a lively bout of deafening jazz. The reliable handheld camera also makes a welcomed return, only adding to the realistic feel which The Eddy provides. While I am used the Chazelle directing feature length films, The Eddy consists of eight episodes, each around an hour long. This made me feel as if I was watching a series of mini movies, as opposed to television episodes, so it was a change of pace that I did not mind all that much.
Thematically, I couldn’t feel as if this series was a little bit more dire compared to Chazelle’s other work. The characters all come off as overly mopey, but in a way which I struggled to relate to in the same way I had previously with Andrew in Whiplash. Even some moments in the first episode containing murder and assault just felt like a side of Chazelle that I wasn’t quite used to. Along a similar line of criticism, I couldn’t help but feel like this show was a bit too much? Stylistically speaking anyway. As I started watching, the aesthetic and themes of aspiring people working in a jazz club who smoke cigarettes on a street corner in Paris almost felt like a concept dreamt up by a pretentious jazz fan, which I’m sure is the exact way a few people would describe Chazelle, but it came off as almost expected. The Eddy is not a bad show by any means, and the episodes which Chazelle directs do show off his signature flair, but I think I’ll stick to Whiplash and First Man for the time being.
My Cinematic Ramblings 