Greatness. Is it worth it?

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 2017)

Damien Chazelle gives an astonishing portrayal of ambition and the quest for greatness. Andrew (Miles Teller) is a freshman with a dream to become one of the greatest drummers in history. He dreams to become a legend that lasts forever. Terrence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons), a music instructor in one of the most prestigious music academies, sees potential in Andrew and decides to mentor him.
Fletcher, however, has a ruthless philosophy on teaching and goes to great, arguably inhumane, lengths to realizing his students' potentials. In fact, one of his students ends up suiciding possibly because of the methods and pressure Fletcher places on his students. He always has students on edge, even when Andrew is core drummer, he gets him a phoney second drummer to keep Andrew on edge. Fletcher believes that you must be pushed beyond your limits, far beyond them until you are either discouraged, or achieve greatness.
Andrew expresses his obsession with greatness and success very clearly at a family dinner when he starts talking about Charlie Parker and how nothing but legacy and greatness matters. When he decides to take Nicole (Melissa Benoist) out on a date, he enters a relationship that later puts him in a dilemma. Eventually, Andrew feels that this relationship will threaten his path for greatness, he feels (as he explained to Nicole) that Nicole will drag him down, that every minute spent with her is a minute taken from his practice, and so he will inevitably hate her. Andrew goes on to practice till his hands bleed, survives a bloody car crash, gets kicked out of the band, gets humiliated in front of an audience that could make or break his career, to finally delivering one of the greatest, most electrifying performances anyone has seen.
I believe that when analyzing a movie, it is irrelevant whether or not it was "right" that he left Nicole, I think that the fact that as a viewer you could tell that Andrew was going to leave her or that you were convinced of his actions as a character shows very good screenplay. The question is not whether Fletcher's methods or Andrew's actions are right, but whether greatness is worth its cost.