A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.
Writer/Director: Damien Chazelle
Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser, Melissa Benoist.
Watched online, ok print.
18 songs in the Soundtracks. The title track is Written by Hank Levy. Most familiar tune: Caravan.
This has an unbelievably high rating for IMDb, with a lot of votes, and it matches the extra restrictions to be on their Top 250 list at #44. Wow. Never knew this was about jazz.
A powerful tale, kept me engaged the whole time. It helps that the music is in my favorites zone, but it's the psychological suspense that is so gripping. I doubt that a second viewing would be as rich if you remember the outcome. So no spoilers here.
IMDb Trivia: "Although a visual double was used, all of Andrew's drumming was performed by Miles Teller himself to pre-recorded tracks. About 40% of Teller's drumming was used in the soundtrack." I definitely detected a different pair of arms in one drumming sequence, but have been unable to find the name of the drummer, only that "Nate Lang (Carl) is an accomplished drummer and trained Miles Teller and Austin Stowell for their roles." Spoiler alert: read this good article about the playing in the film only after watching.
This writer/director wrote Grand Piano ('13), and goes on to create La La Land ('16).
Rated 8.5 (598,022)
distr. Sony, dir. Chazelle; 8-
