Saw all three this weekend. All great in their own way.

I actually watched Whiplash twice. I'm curious to know other's opinions of Simmons' character in Whiplash.

He was an a-hole to create the next great musician. I get that. But deep down is he good at all? It seemed like you could see genuine concern on his face when Teller's character comes in from the car accident. And also genuine sadness over the loss of the musician who committed suicide. I think you can argue that he knew he had to completely commit to being an a-hole if he was going to create a great, but did he enjoy being an a-hole? Seemed like it when he ran the fat trombone player out of the room.

Simmons' character was certainly a narcissist to think he could create the next Bird.

I also wonder why he said the musician died in a car wreck when it was a suicide. Why say anything about the way he died.

This post was edited on 5/18/15 at 11:09 am

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Posted by CocomoLSU

Inside your dome.

Member since Feb 2004

150771 posts

Posted on 5/18/15 at 11:18 am to atlau

quote:
but did he enjoy being an a-hole?

Not only did he enjoy it, but he reveled in it.

I think he ultimately cared about the product (good music/talented musicians), but didn't care at all about the people providing it. And he'd push and push them until they either broke down or gave him what he wanted. But as we saw with Miles, he didn't give up no matter how hard he was pushed. And in the end, even though Simmons was livid on stage, he at least appreciated the product that Miles was putting during the show, which is why he gave him the nod of approval (so to speak) and kept going.

But IMO he definitely hated the kid on a personal level no matter how much he respected his talent.

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Posted by MasterBetty

Monroe, LA

Member since Apr 2012

894 posts

Posted on 5/18/15 at 11:25 am to CocomoLSU

I'll take a quick review of Still Alice if you've got it. Wife wanted to rent this the other day but it sounded kinda meh to me. Worthy of a rental?

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Posted by LSUBoo

Knoxville, TN

Member since Mar 2006

101920 posts

Posted on 5/18/15 at 11:43 am to atlau

quote:
but did he enjoy being an a-hole?

I don't think you could possibly be that big of an a-hole if you didn't enjoy it on some level. Maybe he embraced that side of himself and played it up, but he had to start out an a-hole to end up like that.

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Posted by atlau

Member since Oct 2012

5264 posts

Posted on 5/18/15 at 11:58 am to LSUBoo

quote:
And in the end, even though Simmons was livid on stage, he at least appreciated the product that Miles was putting during the show, which is why he gave him the nod of approval (so to speak) and kept going.

I don't think he just gave him the nod, but at the very end when it cut to his eyes, I went away thinking Simmons smiled at him. I think Simmons was going to be "livid" until he got his Bird.

quote:
I'll take a quick review of Still Alice if you've got it. Wife wanted to rent this the other day but it sounded kinda meh to me. Worthy of a rental?

It's a downer of a movie, but I think it's worth watching if for nothing else, Julianne Moore's performance. She is spectacular in it.

I also enjoyed the complexity of Baldwin as her husband and how he handled the situation.

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Posted by JinFL