Written by Luke Barnes
Summary
Andrew Neiman, played by Miles Teller, has the world’s worst student experience.
Previously I have not liked Miles Teller as a performer, he often gives off a very smug and irritating air that I find ruins a lot of his performances for me, however, here I thought he was first class. Teller brought a lot to this film, you really felt the character’s pain both physical and mental over the course of the film. Moreover, I thought this character’s journey to greatness was incredibly inspirational and I thought a lot of that had to do with Teller’s performance.
In addition, I hadn’t been a great fan of Damien Chazelle’s other films La La Land and First Man did little for me in either case. However, I thought this film was incredibly effecting and one of the tensest films I have ever seen, the battle between Neiman and his abusive conductor, played by J.K Simmons, was marvellous and never let up.
Simmons was fantastic as well and truly deserved the Oscar for his performance, he portrayed the character in such a flawed and layered way that you are never quite sure how you feel about him, on the one hand he is incredibly abusive but on the other he really does want Neiman to be the best he can be.
Overall, a powerful film.
Pros.
Simmons
Teller
The tension
The emotion
Cons.
The pacing, it could have been better being about 15 minutes shorter with a tighter edit of the second act
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Another Millennial Reviewer 