Few titles this fall will be arriving with more festival clout and audience admiration than Whiplash. Directed by Damien Chazelle (helmer of Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, writer of Grand Piano), the film premiered at Sundance, where it scooped up the top awards amongst the jury and the audience. It then stopped by Cannes and will soon head to Toronto International Film Festival before landing in theaters.
Following Miles Teller as an jazz drummer who practices under the guidance of J.K. Simmons, the first gripping trailer has landed today. While we didn’t get a chance to check this out at Park City nor on the croisette, rest assured it’s one we’re looking forward to this fall. As Chazelle mounts his next film, a musical with Emma Watson that’ll reteam him with Teller, check out the trailer below, along with a clip.
Andrew, a promising 19-year-old drummer at a cutthroat Manhattan music conservatory, has little interest in being just a musician. Haunted by his father’s failed writing career and plagued with the fear that mediocrity just might be genetic, Andrew dreams of greatness. Determined not to follow in his father’s footsteps, he practices daily until his hands literally bleed. The pressure of success ratchets into high gear when he is picked to join the school band led by the infamous Terence Fletcher, a brutally savage music instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student’s potential. Under Fletcher’s ruthless direction, Andrew begins to pursue perfection at any cost—even his humanity.
Whiplash opens on October 10th via Sony Pictures Classics.