Logging

Film: Whiplash

Ugh.

For the budget and scale, the filmmaking is pretty good, but at the core of this movie is a big fat lie and the kind of lies we don't need. Charlie Parker didn't become Bird because a guy threw a symbol at his head anymore than LeBron became LeBron because some abusive coach beat and throttled him. LeBron became LeBron because he's a physical freak of nature and there happened to be this game of basketball which he enjoyed playing and happened to be really gifted at it. This whole idea of torturing oneself into genius is foolish. Messi doesn't work harder at soccer than other professionals. Yet, he's a genius and they are not. If JK Simmons entire world POV was correct, we'd see totalitarian regimes excelling in everything from classical music to soccer to art to finance to architecture. Yet, we don't.

Perhaps the reason Starbucks jazz sucks is because guys like JK Simmons took the joy out of making it.