An incoherent, psychotic rehash of Drumline.

Rating: 4/10 (9 April 2016)

Why would I call this movie incoherent? Because there is little consistency. The characters emotions are scattered and tumultuous, cast in a surrealist setting where among a school of promising musicians, a tenured instructor ritualistically destroys the dreams of the most promising students, in the hope one will reach the brink of despair and rise above where those have fallen. So he ruins peoples' lives for years in the psychotic belief that he'll create a master somehow.
Through the dinner scene with the two main characters (I did not take the time to remember their names, this movie is forgettable), the music instructor attempts to provide some reason behind his madness, but again, the epitaph is incoherent. So you're a music instructor . . . who is jealous of the world, and believes he has the answer for everything he observes is wrong with the world. So he's a psychopath. And yet he is gratified in the final moments of the movie? And finally, this is just a rip off of Drumline. This movie had little to nothing original to add to the story, just extra character development, that once again is incoherent. So the instructor lets one of the trombone players go because he doesn't know whether or not he's out of tune, but the player next to him that was out of tune . . . is allowed to stay. So yeah, the instructor is trying to set an example to the others, I get that, and perhaps he's trying to flush out the few who aren't actually passionate about music, but then he physically assaults the main character in front of the other students, until he cries, then mocks his suffering?
I would have walked out of this movie if I saw it in theaters. What a pile of crap. They did get me interested with the teacher's gruff, hard attitude, but he never lets up, stays a jerk until the end of the movie, and yet gets to create the 'master' he's always been looking for. I withdrew only enough frustration from this film to write a negative review. I can see why some people like this film, but it is a superficial pile of garbage if you look at it with any deeper scrutiny than a mindless, berating comedy that showcases the humiliation of people with true talent and dreams. What a soulless film, and a general waste of my time. I feel ashamed of writing a bad review on a critically a acclaimed film only because I wasted the time to acknowledge the movie at all.