Whiplash (15A) *****

With the flurry of great films on show at the moment, it's possible you could overlook Whiplash in favour of dramas with starrier casts. Do so at your peril  -  in a January crammed with great movies, this is easily my favourite of the year so far. 

It's a brilliant, novel take on the controlling relationship between teacher and pupil, in this case set in the world of jazz. 

Miles Teller plays Andrew Neyman, a gifted young jazz drummer for whom being good is not good enough. 

Determined and single-minded in pursuit of his place at a revered New York music academy, he gets the spot  -  and comes under the radar of one of its top instructors. 

JK Simmons is getting a lot of awards-season attention as Terence Fletcher, all of it deserved. Fletcher’s a ruthless, nasty, manipulative piece of work, and when he lands a place on his band it changes Andrew’s life. 

Spurred on by the taunts of his teacher, Andrew’s musical mindset develops from determination to obsession, pushing him to greatness but also the brink of insanity.

Simmons is super as the bully who could have been one-note but is much more than that, while Teller impressively holds his own in what it a big performance from the older actor. 

Best of all, the music is super, bringing an electricity and immediacy to the story and working perfectly in tandem with it. There is nothing about Whiplash I didn’t love. 

American Sniper (15A) ****

Bradley Cooper’s bulked up and on screen in virtually every scene of this film which tells the story of Chris Kyle, a US sniper who became the most celebrated in the history of the military. It's directed by Clint Eastwood, who has long had an interest in bringing stories of conflict to the big screen. 

But the film’s strength is that it falls short of painting Kyle as a mere war hero, focusing instead on how violent conflict can impact on the human psyche. 

And while it doesn’t exactly spark moral debate about whether or not US troops should have been involved in these conflicts, it’s a strong depiction of the daily menaces and dangers facing these men who need to think clearly at all times  -  despite the chaos going on around them. 

In the same vein as The Hurt Locker, the movie also charts Kyle’s growing inability to function normally in everyday society, because he can’t understand the everyday normality of life away from armed conflict. 

The movie depicts the four tours of duty Kyle took in Iraq, and the growing pressure it put on his marriage to his wife (Sienna Miller). 

Over the years, the SEAL’s precision shooting and timing helps him kill dozens of Iraqi insurgents, saving the lives of many of his colleagues and earning him the nickname ‘Legend’. 

It’s level-headed, sure-handed direction from Eastwood, and the tension he builds during some of the gripping, vital scenes put you right at the heart of the conflict.