J.K. Simmons plays a music teacher in a top-notch New York music jazz school who is only interested in making musicians exceptional and great, and often his methods seem abusive. See if you can tell if Miles Teller is really playing the drums. I'm a musician, and it was hard to tell. I think he played the longer-shot scenes and close-up scenes, someone else may have done that. Regardless of who did it, the drumming is exceptional. You don't become a great drummer unless you have a great teacher who pushes you beyond your limits, and this is what this movie is about—bringing the best out of a person and not settling for mediocre or just "good."
~Gabriel of Urantia*MPAA = Motion Picture Association of America
*4DFR = An alternative, 4th-Dimensional, rating is supplied by the author of this review
