Box office
In North America, the film opened in a limited release on October 10, 2014, in 6 theaters, grossing $135,388 ($22,565 per theater) and finishing 34th at the box office.[2] It expanded to 88 locations, then 419 locations.[26] After three months on release it had earned $7 million, and finally expanded nationwide to 1000 locations to capitalize on receiving five Academy Awards nominations.[27] Whiplash grossed $13.1 million in the U.S. and Canada and $35.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $49 million against a budget of $3.3 million.[2]
Critical response
Director Damien Chazelle at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored 94% based on 307 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Intense, inspiring, and well-acted, Whiplash is a brilliant sophomore effort from director Damien Chazelle and a riveting vehicle for stars J. K. Simmons and Miles Teller."[28] On Metacritic the film has a score of 89 out of 100, based on reviews from 49 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[29] Simmons received wide praise for his performance and won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.[30][31]
Peter Debruge, in his review for Variety, said that the film "demolishes the cliches of the musical-prodigy genre, investing the traditionally polite stages and rehearsal studios of a topnotch conservatory with all the psychological intensity of a battlefield or sports arena."[32] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter praised the performances of Teller and Simmons, writing: "Teller, who greatly impressed in last year's Sundance entry The Spectacular Now, does so again in a performance that is more often simmering than volatile ... Simmons has the great good fortune for a character actor to have here found a co-lead part he can really run with, which is what he excitingly does with a man who is profane, way out of bounds and, like many a good villain, utterly compelling."[33] Whiplash also won the 87th Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing and the 87th Academy Award for Best Film Editing.[34]
Amber Wilkinson of The Daily Telegraph praised the direction and editing, writing: "Chazelle's film has a sharp and gripping rhythm, with shots beautifully edited by Tom Cross... often cutting to the crash of Andrew's drums."[35] James Rocchi of Indiewire gave a positive review and said, "Whiplash is ... full of bravado and swagger, uncompromising where it needs to be, informed by great performances and patient with both its characters and the things that matter to them."[36] Henry Barnes of The Guardian gave the film a positive review, calling it a rare film "about music that professes its love for the music and its characters equally."[34]
Forrest Wickman of Slate said the film distorted jazz history and promoted a misleading idea of genius, adding that "In all likelihood, Fletcher isn't making a Charlie Parker. He's making the kind of musician that would throw a cymbal at him."[37] In The New Yorker, Richard Brody said,"Whiplash honors neither jazz nor cinema."[38]
Top ten lists
The film appeared on many critics' end-of-year lists. Metacritic collected lists published by major film critics and publications and in their analysis, recorded that Whiplash appeared on 57 lists and in 1st place on 5 of those lists. Overall the film was ranked in 5th place for the year by Metacritic.[39]
- 1st – William Bibbiani, CraveOnline
- 1st – Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly[40]
- 1st – Erik Davis, Movies.com
- 2nd – A. A. Dowd, The A.V. Club[41]
- 2nd – Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter
- 2nd – Mara Reinstein, Us Weekly
- 3rd – Tasha Robinson, The Dissolve
- 3rd – Amy Taubin, Artforum
- 3rd – Steve Persall, Tampa Bay Times
- 3rd – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush
- 3rd – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects
- 4th – Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The A.V. Club[41]
- 4th – Kyle Smith, New York Post
- 4th – Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
- 4th – Brian Miller, Seattle Weekly
- 4th – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
- 4th – David Edelstein, Vulture
- 5th – Ty Burr, The Boston Globe
- 5th – Genevieve Koski, The Dissolve
- 5th – James Berardinelli, Reelviews
- 5th – David Ansen, The Village Voice[42]
- 5th – Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times (tied with Foxcatcher)
- 6th – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
- 6th – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
- 6th – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
- 7th – Jesse Hassenger, The A.V. Club[41]
- 7th – Rex Reed, New York Observer
- 7th – Noel Murray, The Dissolve
- 7th – Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press
- 7th – Wesley Morris, Grantland
- 7th – Alison Willmore, BuzzFeed
- 8th – Keith Phipps, The Dissolve
- 8th – Mike Scott, The Times-Picayune
- 8th – Rafer Guzman, Newsday
- 8th – Seth Malvín Romero, A.V. Wire
- 8th – Ben Kenigsberg, The A.V. Club[41]
- 8th – Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- 8th – Kristopher Tapley, Hitfix
- 8th – Matthew Jacobs and Christopher Rosen, Huffington Post
- 9th – Nathan Rabin, The Dissolve
- 10th – Clayton Davis, Awards Circuit
- 10th – Owen Gleiberman, BBC
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Claudia Puig, USA Today
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Stephen Whitty, The Star-Ledger
Accolades
The film received the top audience and grand jury awards in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival;[43] Chazelle's short film of the same name took home the jury award in the U.S. fiction category one year prior.[15] The film also took the grand prize and the audience award for its favorite film at the 40th Deauville American Film Festival.[44]
Whiplash was originally planned to compete for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, but on January 6, 2015, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced that the film would instead be competing in the Adapted Screenplay category[45] to the surprise of many including Chazelle,[46] due to the short film premiering at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival (one year before the feature film's release), even though the feature film's script was written first and the short was made to attract investors into producing the feature-length film.[14] Although the Writers Guild of America categorized the screenplay as original, AMPAS classed it as an adaptation of the 2013 short version.[46]
At the 87th Academy Awards, J. K. Simmons received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, Tom Cross won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing and Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing. In December 2015, the score received a Grammy nomination, and the film was nominated for the NME Award for Best Film.
In 2020, it ranked 13 on Empire's list of "The 100 Greatest Movies Of The 21st Century."[47] In 2024, it topped the list of the Sundance Film Festival's Top 10 Films of All Time as the result of a survey conducted with 500 filmmakers and critics in honor of the festival's 40th anniversary.[48][49]
