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Whiplash is fantastic. A great pressure cooker of a film, distilled, focused, well balanced, great tone, great color, great editing, great story structure.
The Act 3 Setup is especially interesting. Our main question has been answered; we cannot succeed as a drumming great through the music school.
We get a glimpse of our story's end, our main character done with the drums, ousted, failed, ready to move on in some way.
But what happens when we see Fletcher in the real world, he flags us down, we talk, we hear his point of view, his thesis, and at the end of it we get invited to join him again in a new arena?
All of the sudden there is a new focus and goal for Act 3, one in line with the overall story and character evolution, one that sets up a huge new question, or variation on our original question, now risen from the ashes.
Written and directed by Damien Chazelle.
Be well.