Unrealistic but worth watching

Rating: 7/10 (1 March 2015)

I have been both a musician and a music teacher, and this movie is unrealistic in so many ways. No "prestigious" music school would allow the bullying, profane monster portrayed by J.K. Simmons to have access to its students. No drummer's hands bleed in the manner portrayed by Miles Teller's character (maybe a blister or two might pop before he develops callouses--drummers should speak to this). The movie is almost unbearably slow at times besides.
However, it is worth seeing if you like jazz--although most of the music is not modern jazz at all but more from the big-band era--and if you like good acting.
Both J.K. Simmons--who won the Oscar for his portrayal--and Miles Teller do a phenomenal job of acting out their parts in this wildly unrealistic drama of a driven young musician's descent into near madness caused by a sadistic "instructor." The movie Shine with Geoffrey Rush was in a similar vein but was done much more realistically and with a painful type of beauty.
J.K. Simmons absolutely deserved the win for his portrayal, but anyone who would rush to see this movie should go in with eyes wide open and a shot of caffeine to stay awake.