We have a squeaker today, class........

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2015)

Andrew is starting his first year at Shaffer Conservatory of Music, and being the best at Shaffer means being under Terence Fletcher, and being asked to play in his studio band, which represents the school.
Andrew is surprised that Fletcher asks him to join the band, and quickly learns that Fletcher operates on fear and intimidation, never settling for what he considers less than the best each and every time.
Being the best does not only mean playing well, but knowing that you're playing well and if not what you're doing wrong.
He creates an atmosphere of fear, but Andrew works hard to be the best, and to figure out his life priorities and what he is willing to sacrifice to be the best.
But how much emotional abuse is he willing to endure from Fletcher to reach that greatness, which he may believe he can only achieve with the avenues opened up by him.........
To say that the last fifteen minutes of this will leave you breathless, is an understatement, and although its a typical cliché of many a critic, here that cliché is justifiable, and I'm sure you will agree with me after seeing this masterpiece.
But what's funny is that it begins like any music school movie you may have come across in the past few years, and again, the introductions are your atypical high school movie fillers. Andrew is your man, the underdog, who doesn't have the accolades or the collateral like the other students, but Fisher sees something in him, but doesn't let him know.
But then class begins, and the makers let Simmons loose, and if you think Ermey was harsh in Full Metal Jacket, try your time with Fisher, maybe the most poisonous teacher ever committed to celluloid, but hey, he's doing it all for the greater good.
And that greater good is the medium of Jazz. Jazz is Fishers life, and its clear that he''ll be damned to let someone pass who is good, as stated by him several times, he wants the best, he wants the next Charlie Parker, someone who will give him that love of music, and much more.
So the film asks the question, are his actions justifiable if he is so passionate about the music? He wants the music to be the best, and it appears that if you get a note wrong, its blasphemy in Fishers eyes.
The film is monumental, so original and so fresh, it's been way too long since we have had something like this slap us round the face and take notice.
Simmons will one hundred percent win best supporting actor at the Academy Awards, he is that good, a cross between the Grim Reaper, Drill Sergeant, and that teacher everyone hated at school, but at the same time, you empathise with him, it's his love, and it gives him pleasure as well as grief, as seen in the bar scene.
When a film about music school can thrill, endear, shock, scare, and vex you, it's more than a film, it's an experience.
A must see......