All the vicious subtext of their struggle tends to get a little too plainly discussed outside the rehearsal hall a family dinner scene exists more or less solely so Andrew can lay out what’s driving him, and a jazz club drink later on serves the same for Fletcher. Even better, though, is when they live together on the same face: an awkward break-up scene has him sounding like a narcissist while trying to look like a hurt child, and it’s not hard to sympathize with the disgust his now-ex feels over how badly he’s handling the end.Įxcepting that scene, the film suffers a bit when it isn’t just Fletcher flaying Andrew and Andrew tightening that skin right back into the bass drum.

Teller, too, is an actor who can flip a switch, and his relatively few calm moments on the stool resonate between a sort of boyish befuddlement and an arrogant sneer. Fletcher is his angry accomplice, but all he’s really doing is giving Andrew license to take the chip off his shoulder and smash it through a drum kit. He’s clearly disappointed in his dad - a man so milquetoast he apologizes when someone else bumps his head at the movie theatre - and there’s a bubbling discontent in the way he doesn’t quite relate to the other students. There is no actual relief under Fletcher’s eye, just breaks in abuse that let him figure out where you’re still vulnerable.įor his part, Andrew is the perfect foil: It becomes obvious fairly quickly that, whatever he’s telling himself, his insane drive is less about pleasing Fletcher than proving something to himself. A scene where Fletcher plaintively mourns an ex-student is followed quickly by a marathon audition, Fletcher tearing apart the kit before finally letting a sweaty, bleeding Andrew take the part. Before Andrew’s first practice, he offers a little pep talk, asking him about his life and telling him to relax once the rehearsal room door shuts, though, it’s a matter of time before he is hurling chairs and insults, cutting into the drummer with his own stories of his mother’s abandonment and father’s failure with maximum precision.

It also fills his warmer moments with eerie portent. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.

Kevin simmons canada worst driver now