“There are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job’.”
~ Terence Fletcher

Brief Synopsis: Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is an emotionally vulnerable, ambitious first-year drummer at the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory with dreams of becoming the next great musician, the next Charlie Parker. Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) is an abusive, manipulative conductor whose sole mission in life is to find the next Charlie Parker. What could go wrong? As Andrew plays to the beat of Fletcher’s drum, Andrew’s life reaches a crossroads: sacrifice everything for a dream or be discouraged from drumming forever.

This category was a lot harder to choose a winner than I thought it’d be, because I really didn’t know how to compare these quotes. If I want to go with spontaneity, Drax’s line “Why is Gamora?” got one of the biggest laughs from the theater audience when I saw it. Desmond Doss’s line “Help me get one more” isn’t even a “line” in that sense because it transcends a piece of dialogue — it’s a dose of reality since it’s what the real life Doss was whispering to himself as he was saving lives on Hacksaw Ridge. Honey’s “Greater good?” quote is just plain iconic. The “I play the orchestra” quote from Steve Jobs is one that isn’t self-obviously clever, but when you take it in the context of the story, it’s the quote that best encompasses Jobs’s personality and the reputation he stakes his career on. In the end, though, I went with Terence Fletcher’s line about “good job” because out of all the nominations, it holds the greatest emotional punch during the film’s most critical moment.

Anyone who has seen Whiplash remembers this scene. After a semester’s worth of abuse, the master and the pupil have a private moment in a dimly lit New York City jazz club. The atmosphere is tense, to say the least. By now, both of their careers at Shaffer Conservatory are destroyed — Fletcher never got his Charlie Parker and Andrew became discouraged from drumming. They share a drink, and for the first time in the film, Fletcher makes himself appear vulnerable by simply being honest. He opens up about why he led the Studio Band like a brutal dictatorship. Namely, in order to be the best musician, the student needs to be constantly pushed beyond their limits. Fletcher caps off his monologue with his extreme stance: “There are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job’.” 

What makes the quote so powerful is that, through the monologue and its closing line, Andrew empathizes with Fletcher. Empathy for Fletcher seems impossible, given how the audience just watched him abuse and torment his students for well over an hour. But… For Whiplash, the narrative structure’s crucial element is that it’s told from Andrew’s perspective. Everything before the jazz club scene is built up so that during this monologue Andrew sees Fletcher as a defeated, disgraced orchestra conductor who has surrendered in his pursuit of creating the next greatest musician. If you watch this scene again (or for the first time), pay careful attention to the staging. It’s brilliant because it uses a subtle camera trick to shift power to Andrew. During Fletcher’s monologue, the camera is at an angle where the back of Andrew’s head and shoulders fill up the left side of the screen, while Fletcher is facing toward the camera from the screen’s right side. Fletcher’s face is visible the entire time (especially his eyes), and what this does is create a diagonal perspective where it seems as though Andrew is physically looking down at Fletcher.

Essentially, this scene makes Andrew believe Fletcher is not the threat he once was (which is super vital for the very last scene in this film), and the “good job” quote is what sells it. It’s a cynical, emotionally charged philosophy that holds an elitist disdain for complacency and self-indulgence. But it’s Fletcher’s truth. And it’s a moment of clarity for Andrew because he finally understands his mentor. Everything that drives Fletcher’s passion for greatness is compressed into this single quote…and Andrew respects the hell out of it. Because Andrew doesn’t want to hear “good job” from anyone — not his father, not Fletcher, not even from himself. The quote is so memorable because it’s the line that convinces Andrew that “Good job” is just something people say to those who want to believe they’ve worked hard enough — the best know they will never be enough. 

And I think from the audience’s perspective, there’s a reason the movie lingers for a few seconds after Fletcher delivers the line. We may not respect the man who says it, but we respect the fact that Whiplash is a thought experiment about what we are or aren’t willing to sacrifice (as individuals and as a society), and this line about “good job,” more than any other moment, forces us to consider that idea.