Daily Dialogue — September 4, 2016

“You think I’m fucking stupid? I know it was you.”

— Whiplash (2014), written by Damien Chazelle

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Blame.

Trivia: The director and writer of the film, Damien Chazelle, could not get funding for the movie, so he instead turned it into a short film and submitted it into the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. The short film ended up winning the Short Film Jury Award, and he got funding soon after.

Dialogue On Dialogue: The final act of this movie is incredible, one of the best final 15 minutes of any movie… ever. And it’s set up by a chain of events [SPOILER ALERT]: Andrew [Miles Teller] provides evidence against Fletcher [J.K. Simmons] which gets Fletcher fired from his teaching position. Weeks later, Fletcher has a chance meeting with Andrew, stating he doesn’t know who ratted him out. He invites Andrew to play in a big gig in front of a bunch talent scouts. Then while on stage to perform, he changes tunes the band is to play leaving Andrew lost and unable to play with the band. That’s when Fletcher tells Andrew the line quoted above. Andrew slumps away knowing his career as a jazz musician is effectively over after his humiliating performance. But then he comes back and what you see in the video is an astonishing response, one which wins over Fletcher. And it happens because Fletcher blamed Andrew for losing his job. If you haven’t seen this movie, please do. It’s awesome.