This is kind of a sports movie in disguise. If conservatory student Andrew (Miles Teller) were a college basketball player instead of an aspiring jazz drummer, this movie might’ve made into a multiplex. And Andrew’s nemesis might’ve been someone like coach Bobby Knight, instead of the mercurial Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), who commandeers the school’s elite jazz orchestra and, like Knight, is not averse to throwing a chair.
Fletcher is warm and friendly to outsiders but uses strategic humiliation and browbeating to get his players to play better. In an early scene, a horn player gets booted for supposedly being out of tune. But he also gets Andrew to play and play until his hands bleed. Never has music seemed so physically punishing. Are such tiger-mother tactics the best way to get such results? Are they the only way? The film, an expanded version of a short by writer-director Damien Chazelle, ultimately leaves the conclusion to the viewer. Meanwhile, it’s a excellent bit of psychological and character drama with a fierce performance from Simmons, a great character actor.
IMDb link
viewed 11/13/14 7:15 at Ritz 5 and posted 11/13/14
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