Disturbing but definitely worth seeing.

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2017)

No synopsis of the film, just a summary of impressions.
Some films stay with you for various reasons. After seeing this film a few days ago, I find that it is sitting in my head, just in the background where my subconscious continues to toy with it. Frankly it is a disturbing film with powerhouse performances by JK Simmons and Miles Teller. Worth seeing but be prepared for some unsettling content.
There are lots of reviews that discuss the plausibility of a man like Fletcher existing in academia today or if one can really drum until your hands bleed.
I don't think either issue matters from a thematic point of view of the film. Both of these aspects of the film could be attributed to dramatic license to convey a deeper meaning. This is how I approached this film while watching it and in this review.
This does not mean I believe that the Fletcher character is implausible in real life. In fact, I don't think that this character is much of a dramatic stretch. Its pretty typical to see coaches and teachers in the arts bully their students. Growing up in a backwater midwest town I recall having a music teacher who employed tactics like Fletcher-- He threw temper tantrums for similar triggers as seen in this movie and tossed his baton, chair and music stand from time to time. One time I remember he even grabbed a student by the neck (a drummer in fact) and pushed him against the wall. Ahh, the good ole days of education in middle American. Anyway, suffice to say I think that this type of teacher or coach is a plausible reality.
The scenes of Andrew pushing himself to and beyond the his limits are a bit unbelievable with the blood and wounds and all. Implausible yes, but I think this was an intentional device to convey a deeper meaning so that no one could miss it. All of these scenes are effective in conveying the one big theme in this film---only pain creates great art.
This theme seems to prevail in the arts and there is much evidence to support it if you look at the biographies of the great painters, novelists, etc. Pain is a great motivator to inspire and change human behavior. I think that this idea rather romanticizes the suffering that many great artists experienced during their lifetimes . And perhaps this idea seems ingrained in the arts because its such an effective sales pitch for these artists work postmortem. Anyway, whether or not pain is necessary for great art will probably be debated for eons to come. This theme in the movie was not that interesting to me. I guess I should note that the film does take a position on this issue, coming down firmly on the side that pain is necessary to bring out artistic greatness.
Okay, so the big obvious theme of the movie did not intrigue me. Yet, there is something that intrigued me about this film, something I found very unsettling and set me about writing this review. This film offers a rather realistic portrayal of the systematic abuse employed by someone who fits the profile of a sociopath or narcissist fairly well.
Support for this conclusion: Fletcher manipulates his students and Teller's character in particular from the very first scene. He puts Teller's character Andrew through a cycle of idealization and devaluation again and again. He gas lights Andrew again and again. He systematically uses triangulation to manipulate Andrew. These are the tactics of a textbook narcissist.
In this same vein, Andrew is the perfect victim. We see him lose each and every personal boundary, including one that would induce him to care for his own survival after being seriously injured in a car accident.
Why does Andrew do this? Its all an effort to receive approval from Fletcher. Andrew is the perfect victim in this film. And his path in the film takes him to the place where many victims end up when tangling with this type of human being.
In the finale where Fletcher sets up Andrew for the ultimate humiliation for the sole purpose of vengeance, I found this to be one of the most chilling things I've seen on screen in a long while. For me, the film should have ended right there as this is what can happen when you tangle with a narcissist.
The film continues after this scene. We see a wild performance and Andrew seems to get what he has sought from Fletcher from the very beginning of the film. It feels a bit like a tacked on scene, like something that was forced on the story--a typical Hollywood feel good ending that was probably added to make the project more palatable to a test audience or producers. Given the nature of the characters as portrayed in this film, the ending would not end up in feel good land. Rather, it would likely end up as the Casey character mentioned in the film---Fletcher's prodigy who eventually hung himself.