It is the story of a drum student, Andrew, and his teacher, Fletcher. Fletcher insults and humiliates Andrew, calling him names and using cheap humour and foul language while the rest of the class cower in silence. This is the army transposed to a music school. We have seen those scenes where the sargent humiliates his troops. Music has never been so joyless and filled with fear. Later Fletcher justifies his behaviour expressing the belief that musicians achieve their best only when they are pushed, and it was all to make Andrew a better drummer
There is a romance story who's only function is to show us that Andrew is only a little less unpleasant than his teacher.
There is the scene where Andrew is on a bus late for an important session and the bus has a puncture (sigh....), so he hires a car and has a crash (sigh again....). he crawls out from the inverted car, his face covered in blood and goes to the session and performs. I was not sighing then, I was rejecting this overcooked rubbish. This may be dramatic for those who buy all this schtick.
It is easy to imagine this scene:-
"This is an important drumming scene and we need to something to make it really dramatic."
"How about he's drumming so hard that his hands bleed and the blood splatters all over the drums?"
"Wow! That's great! Let's do that."
And, my God, they did.
In a quieter scene Fletcher explains his belief that great artists are capable of performing beyond their expectations when they are encouraged and pushed, but I know that that is not how Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra rose to prominence. No-one drove them to the limit of endurance in a rehearsal room. I don't like the idea that art is like athletics, where effort is so important. Technical facility is not all: think of Miles Davis.
This is a film that does not entertain, it does not please us with its music or the wit and truth of its dialogue, and who's most profound ideas are false.
As one critic wrote "this is a film about jazz for people who don't know much about jazz,"
