‘Whiplash’ Live in Concert: 5 Takeaways
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Damien Chazelle’s debut feature Whiplash hit theaters over a decade ago, eventually earning three Academy Awards and the reputation as one of the best films of the 21st century.
I had the pleasure of seeing the film at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago as part of a live concert experience, featuring the film’s composer Justin Hurwitz as conductor, drummer Greyson Nekrutman, and the 18-piece Chicago Philharmonic jazz ensemble. Here are my takeaways from the event.
1. A True 4-D Experience
Forget wind effects and fake smells—the true immersive theatrical experience is feeling every bass drum boom and cymbal crash and trumpet blast hit your body as you watch the action on screen. Plus, with the movie beaming from the big screen and a concert happening live on stage, it’s basically two shows at once, synthesized into a powerful communal event I was still buzzing from days later. If only every movie had a live ensemble accompaniment!
2. Greyson Nekrutman — WOW
The star of the show was this 23-year-old percussionist, who played in sync with all the drumming in the movie to such an uncanny and energetic degree that I often forgot I was hearing it live. His background in both jazz and heavy metal drumming is a perfect fit for this role, which demands as much artistic expression as it does a full-body workout. The roar of the crowd after several different insane drum solos was well deserved.
3. Justice for Melissa Benoist
One casualty of the movie’s noisy psychological warfare between Andrew and Fletcher is Nicole, the movie theater attendant played by a winning Melissa Benoit who in basically two scenes damn near stole the show with her sweet, playful demeanor and vulnerability. I’m tempted to say Andrew blew it by blowing up their budding romance, but he actually did her an immense favor. I hope she found the right major at Fordham and a guy who treated her right.
4. J.K. Simmons is a force of nature
Audiences, critics, and the Academy all agreed at the time that J.K Simmons as the sadistic jazz conductor Terence Fletcher was an award-worthy performance, and this experience merely emphasized that. What was new this time around was how, due to the stage lighting and his all-black outfits, Fletcher appeared to emerge from the darkness like a malevolent force—his iconic head lording over the auditorium like a demonic Wizard of Oz. Enjoy that well-deserved Oscar, J.K.
5. The Chazelle/Hurwitz skeleton key
If 2009’s Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench was the actual feature debut of writer/director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz, Whiplash feels like their true arrival that set the template for the driven protagonists, crackling camerawork, and sensational scores that would feature throughout their prodigious partnership in La La Land, First Man, and Babylon—and hopefully many more films beyond.