Whiplash is the best film of the year. Whiplash chronicles the trials that a young drummer, Andrew (Miles Teller), must overcome to be the best. Oh, it also has one of the worst movie villains of the year in Fletcher (J. K. Simmons) who constantly yells and insults the drummer any chance he gets and of course this man has to be the conductor of the band that he so desperately wants to be a part of. The movie shows the measures that people will go to to be the best at what they do. Even though the film really only consists of two characters, the chemistry that they share on the screen is amazing, even when Fletcher is slapping Andrew across the face when he doesn’t know the tempo of the music.

The director, Damien Chazelle, first made a short film of the same name because he did not have the money to finance the film at the start. What was at first an 18 minute film, thankfully got enough investors on board to finance the full length version.  With five nominations this year, Whiplash is tied for fourth in my books with four other films.

Reasons it could win:

• It won the Sundance film festival, both entered in as a short film and as a feature length film
• J. K. Simmons is the favorite for Best Supporting Actor
• Favorite to bring home Best Adapted Screen Play
• Reasons it wouldn’t win:
• Damien Chazelle was not nominated for best director
• It wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe in Musical or Comedy (even if it was consider more of a drama, the amount of music it included should have placed it in that category)
• No one has seen it. It only garnered $10 million during its release.

Possible Outcome:

• Best case scenario, they take home three Oscars for Sound, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay. Worst case scenario, they take home only one for Supporting Actor.

This piece is part of the series “Oscars Countdown” in anticipation of the 2015 Oscars. Arts Critic Patrick Commers reviews the Best Picture nominees daily. To read reviews a day earlier, check out his blog: Rated R for Reviewed.