Whiplash ★★★★★

Common Sense Media Age: 15+ Violence 2/5 Language 5/5

My Age Recommendation: 15+ (Due to pervasive strong language throughout including slurs, brief sexual references, and thematic elements throughout).

This has been on my watch list for a while now, and since I am on break I will be going down the list almost every day! As a drumset player, I was nervous to watch this since I had heard of the intense scenes, but this has to be one of the best movies I have ever seen. The story follows a drummer in college who is accepted into one of the hardest bands in his college, ran by a conductor named Terence Fletcher. Fletcher is an extremely hard conductor who hurls slurs, insults, and crude language towards anyone in his band who don't meet his criteria, and for the new drummer, this will be a lot during his pursuit of perfection. The drummer is determined to be in a great band one day and be one of the greats, but Fletchers unorthodox and sometimes violent methods could be the end of him! This film was easily one of the best movies I've ever seen. I haven't seen a film in a while that has portrayed such intense scenes successfully, and I was truly shaking and sweating during the end as I watched the prolonged drum-solo sequence that could change the drummer's life forever. This movie has some of the best acting ever, mainly J.K. Simmons who plays Fletcher. The story is amazing and had a great pace that maintained throughout, the characters are great due to the actors, and the intense scenes that really make this movie famous were some of the best scenes in cinema history I have ever seen! Overall, I recommend anyone to watch this movie as it is truly a masterpiece.