Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

Pushing or dragging?

Whiplash is an almost classical cinematic two-hander. It boasts a whip smart script, a fondness for mid-twentieth-century jazz music and a variety of deliciously viscous put downs - in those respects, it is not entirely removed from the world of screwball comedy despite adopting tones and modes far removed from the textbook examples of that genre. But like all two-handers, it is the two hands that elevate Whiplash, and puts the central pair in the same ballpark as your Grants and Russells, Bogarts and Bacalls, Lemmons and Matthaus.