'Whiplash' Trailer: J.K. Simmons Is A Vicious Perfectionist

J.K. Simmons torments Miles Teller in Whiplash, pushing the kid beyond his breaking point in the name of excellence. Teller plays a young drummer who aspires to greatness; Simmons plays the elite music academy instructor whose teaching methods are anything but gentle. Miss a beat, and he'll spin a cymbal at your head like Captain America throwing his shield. This great first Whiplash trailer starts to show audiences the situation Teller's character gets into when he attempts to rise to a level of performance that will satisfy the teacher.

When Whiplash premiered at Sundance I loved the core duel between Teller and Simmons, and wasn't quite as impressed with everything around them. But the film is absolutely riveting when those two actors are on screen; Simmons is absolutely captivating as a perfectionist who will stop at nothing in his search for a truly great musical performer.

There's no way an all-audiences trailer can properly represent the character, as his language is foul and mean. That's why the dialogue in this first trailer often seems so chopped up — there's a lot of cutting around the horrible stuff spewed by Simmons' character. You'll still get the idea, and hopefully you'll stick around to see what really happens in the film when it opens later this year.

Here's the song the band is working on in the trailer (and in much of the film). It's a funkier rendition, but enough to get that opening fanfare stuck in your head all day.

Whiplash opens on October 10. Yahoo has the trailer.

Andrew Neyman, a young jazz drummer who attends one of the best music schools in the country under the tutelage of the school's fearsome maestro of jazz named Terence Fletcher struggles to make it as a top jazz drummer.