One big question for one big film

Rating: 10/10 (5 July 2015)

Whiplash is the best film I've seen in the last two years. It's a story about a guy, a teacher and a drum-set, or more simply it's a story about the human soul and its perpetual oscillation between touching the sky and lying on the ground. At the very end of the day, what the entire film tries to do is to put a Hamlet-like question to the audience: it's better to live a simple life without pain, free from troubles, being an average man, or is better to devote every single breathe of your existence to the dream of becoming the best man in the world at doing something (no matter what, from the pusher to the musician). To be or not to be the best one, that is the question. There are no easy answers to this query, the film itself is opened to interpretation, but one thing is to say, Whiplash gives the best non-answer EVER to the questioning. The way the film deals with the issue is somewhat awe-inspiring. So simple, so powerful. In many ways is possible to say that the film's style is minimal. One big topic. Two main characters. Few locations. No special effects. Another reason for loving it. So clear, so accurate. A surgery operation to the heart of one of the most intricate dilemma of the history of human beings. Does the film move a big criticism to the American Dream, to the constitutional (and maybe childish) right to the pursuit of happiness? Who knows. Anyway, one thing is made crystal clear: Epicureanism is not for everybody.