While a movie about an aspiring jazz drummer doesn’t sound all that interesting – unless you are a drummer or into jazz, electronic drums, or writer/director Damien Chazelle looks to have made something truly incredible with Whiplash. The film, which created a small fervor at Sundance, then followed that buzz into the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, will have one more showcase showing at the Toronto International Film Festival where it will likely again be embraced by numerous critics.
Starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons as the pupil and teacher in this drama about a drummer who aspires to be the best (so it’s like Top Gun only with drums instead of fighter jets), Whiplash, we will likely have another strong performance from rising star Miles Teller (of The Spectacular Now). And for those who only know J.K. Simmons from his Farmer’s Insurance ads and as J. Jonah Jameson in the original Spider-Man trilogy he will surely amaze in what looks to be the equivalent of Full Metal Jacket‘s R. Lee Ermey if he were a bandleader instead of a drill instructor.
Whiplash opens on October 10th, 2014.