Whiplash

Andrew wants the chair in the studio band, and Fletcher runs the room by humiliation and a tempo. Chazelle cuts the rehearsals like a match. Miles Teller’s hands are part of the story, blood included. J.K. Simmons makes Fletcher precise enough that the abuse looks, for a while, like a method. The Sony Pictures Classics trailer is the “not quite my tempo” exchange. The final performance asks whether Andrew accepted the terms.