Stunning story of ambition, pushing limitations, and moral ambiguity.

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 2018)

Andrew Neimann, a first year student at a prestigious music academy. He is a loner who has seemingly sacrificed a social life in pursuit of his dream of becoming the next Buddy Rich.
He struggles in relationships with both males in his band class, and with a girl who he deems a distract in his pursuit of greatness.
His father criticizes Andrew for not pursuing a more safe and stable profession and sees drumming as an unrealistic career path. This only pushes Andrew further to prove him wrong.
Professor Terence Fletcher sees something in Andrew and promotes him to the most prestigious band at Schaffer Conservatory, which fletcher conducts. He pushes Andrew to his limits, getting his hopes up, then tearing them down and verbally beating him until Andrew reaches Fletcher's arbitrary, knowingly unrealistic goals.
Andrew punishes himself physically, drumming or listening to tapes every waking hour and living with his drums trying to reach the goals that may vary well be unattainable, unless he gets the approval of Fletcher.
Fletcher also faces legal pressure due to one of his former students having committed suicide, which may not be the first case of this happening to a student of his. Fletcher is devastated after he hears of the death of his former student, who was his most successful one.
Fletcher and Andrew coming together is a perfect storm. Andrew wants to be the absolute best, and Fletcher wants to teach the one who become's the absolute best. They both are willing to go to extreme lengths to accomplish these goals.
Fletcher is deliberately provocative to Andrew and finally pushes him too far, kicking him out of the orchestra. After Andrew attacks Fletcher, he is pursued by a lawyer who is building a case against Fletcher for his possible abuse of students.
Unwilling at first, Andrew eventually complies after pressure from his father and provides testimony which leads to Fletcher being fired from Schaffer.
Not knowing Fletcher is aware of the betrayal, Fletcher convinces Andrew to fill in for a drummer in a show he is doing. He lies to Andrew about the music being played and embarrasses him in front of very important agents in the orchestral music industry. Andrew realizes what he must do and takes the stage over and Fletcher realizes that Andrew is indeed the one student prodigy he was hoping for.
The characters are so gripping and the tragedy and triumph are what makes the movie truly amazing.