La La Land director, Damien Chazelle, came to Park City, UT three years ago with his film Whiplash, which he both wrote and directed. Chazelle walked away from the 2014 Sundance Film Festival with the US Dramatic Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize for the film. Before he became a filmmaker, Chazelle aspired of becoming a jazz drummer and found his inspiration for the story from his high school music teacher.
“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. Sprung from his 2013 Sundance Film Festival award-winning short film, Whiplash is the brilliantly realized feature that writer/director Damien Chazelle always intended to make. Driven by fierce, searing performances from Miles Teller as Andrew and J.K. Simmons as Terence Fletcher, Whiplash crescendos to a blistering climax that will rattle audiences long after the lights come up.
— David Courier”
Keep an eye out for a JK Simmons in La La Land! Click here to watch a trailer for Whiplash.
Film stills courtesy of Whiplash, © 2014 Sundance Institute | Photo by Stephen Speckman, © 2014 Michael Loccisano/WireImage
