Black screen. We hear a drumbeat, speeding up to a crescendo. We see a young man at the drum kit, and are soon introduced to an older mentor-like character, who quickly confronts and mentally manipulates the student. Welcome to Whiplash.

Introducing Terence Fletcher, a character who will forever pop up from now on when a list is made of the most terrifying and psychologically devious film characters. He will be right up there with Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket and Colonel Nathan Jessup from A Few Good Men. But we’ll get back to Fletcher in a moment…

This is only the second feature from director Damien Chazelle, and it is based on a short film he made that won the Sundance Short Film Jury Prize in 2013. (This feature-length version opened Sundance last year.) It stars Miles Teller, a young actor who has impressed in recent films like Rabbit Hole and The Spectacular Now.

But it is J. K. Simmons as Fletcher who is gathering all the attention for the movie. So far, he has won numerous awards including a Golden Globe and has received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, for which he is the frontrunner by far. A recognisable character actor from TV and film, Simmons has lucked out with the role of a lifetime, and is towering as the bully who thoroughly believes in his abusive manner of tutoring.

This is an impressive film, and the final sequence will have you gasping with disbelief and enthusiasm.

Q: Which part of The Skeleton Twins was Oscar nominated in 1988? (Answer to come…)

Maggie (Wiig) invites her estranged brother Milo (Hader) to stay with her back in their hometown, after Milo survives a suicide attempt. Behind Maggie’s (in Milo’s words) ‘Martha Stewart wonderland’ and marriage to her eternally optimistic husband (Wilson), she has some dark secrets of her own. Milo, meanwhile, continues to struggle with his depression, and seeks to resume a complicated relationship with a man from his past (Burrell).

Wiig seems to be making a niche for herself in the ‘comedy with serious approaches to mental illness’ genre. Bridesmaids was her ultimate example of balancing laughs with realistic depictions of depression and, even though this is not written by her, it has many of the same beats. It’s also refreshing (particularly after the righteous hand-wringing that followed the death of Robin Williams last year) to watch a film that is not afraid to either laugh with or be levelheaded about the topic. Bill Hader (whom you may recall from Adventureland) is particularly good at depicting the brother with a complicated set of life issues (he was nominated for Best Actor at the Gotham awards for this role).

The movie is essentially just about life and all its messy complications. Plus it also has one of the funniest scenes of 2014, involving a lipsync to Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (the Oscar-nominated song from Mannequin) that rivals the use of “Hold On” in Bridesmaids.