Good-looking, Well-acted crap movie

Rating: 1/10 (5 March 2020)

It's hard to express how much of a crap movie this is; it's not bad-movie crap, but it's evil-movie crap. Although a lot of playing drums is shown on screen, it's not about drumming; neither is it about music, jazz, teaching, or personal growth. I'm pretty sure this is one of those philosophical, personal-growth essays cleverly disguised as a real story, but it's not only inaccurate about personal growth and learning, but about music school and jazz in particular - insultingly so - it assumes that Bobby Knight tactics work in a teaching environment.
I'm giving it the rating for very specific reasons - starting with one, because that's the least I can give it, and adding one of J.K. Simmons, just because. I'll add one more for Miles Teller, who did his best at a script of abuse, bullying and justified sadism. I'll add one more for the production quality but subtract three for the waste of Melissa Benoit, who actually has the only line from Reality Earth,"What the f**k is wrong with you?".
The point is: I'm a music school veteran and graduate from two pretty good schools, and have taken training from several other teachers and institutions. I've known many many teachers of varying quality; some were very demanding and clear about what they wanted, and others were less so; some were very supportive and others less so. I learned something of value from each one and consider them some of the best people I've known. I've never known or known of anyone who was anything like Fletcher in wanting to tear down the student's personality. But the movie presents him as not a borderline personality disorder but as a successful paragon of motivation and excellence - making every drill sergeant ever depicted on screen look like Mr. Rogers. It really is boot camp hell - why would somebody ever consider staying in a band or a school like that?
It's depressing to read all of the 10-star reviews, many from professional reviews - what the hell?; there must be a built-up appetite for believing that "greatness" results from a masochistic desire, not to suffer, but to be made to suffer at the hands of someone who has nothing to say about music. It's interesting to read the other reviews and backlash essays by people that have an acquaintance with music and music school, making the point that this isn't anything but a Hollywood dream of what music school and personal growth is like.