A movie about competition but not music.

Rating: 6/10 (15 October 2019)

First, I will start off by saying that this movie would be perfect for non-musicians. This may be a great gateway movie into understanding or even appreciating music theory or jazz for that matter.
May themes in the movie seem to be on the border of Hollywood hogwash when it comes to how over-the-top and unrealistic the scenes are.
I understand they do this to entertain as spread out of a demographic as possible. But I feel it teeters on the verge of offensiveness to Jazz, Music Schools, and education. The amount of allowed abuse that went on in the movie was a shock factor for viewers and they dragged it out so much to the point of extreme abuse.
The director has said they wanted to flirt with abusiveness in the film. But I felt that what they did was beyond "flirting".
All in All the movie had great acting and really good cinematography. A lot of the playing in some scenes was completely fake but allowable and some scenes of the movie will really hit home to people who grew up with an obsession for music or a music background.
The movie never took you out of the moment, it kept you in the seat for the whole time. But after the movie was over it left a cheap thrill ride taste in my mouth. Many of the complaints about the movie could seem pedantic, but they are hard to ignore when a movie has such a specific theme they are working with.
All in all, I give the movie a 6/10 and I would recommend as a good intense movie with a music background. Especially for people who are not musically inclined.