3.5 stars out of 5
The name Christopher Wilcha looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Ah, but years ago, someone tipped me off to his directorial debut, the 1999 first-person documentary The Target Shoots First, about working at the Columbia Record Club during the “alternative rock” era. (I watched it on Vimeo.) And in 2007, I was a regular viewer of the This American Life TV show, which he also directed.
And now he’d directed Flipside, supposedly a documentary about a record store in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, which I’ve visited. Wilcha worked there years ago with my friend Tracy, and she’s in the movie. This was a must-see!
Wilcha, who is a couple of years younger than me, clings to/is haunted by a cornerstone belief of Gen X: Never sell out. But he makes a fair point by asking: How can one pay rent/eat food/get married/raise children/get healthcare/etc. etc. without selling out to some extent? Wilcha ended up starting a family and directing commercials, but could never full shake the dream of being a documentarian. However, bad luck and “life getting in the way” has resulted in countless hours of footage for unfinished documentaries. It seems Wilcha spends a lot of time questioning his own choices. And that is what this documentary is actually about. I think.
Flipside explores these ideas — having goals/dreams, pursuing them, the sacrifices we make for chasing dreams, and often failing regardless. Wilcha does this by revisiting some of his old unused doc footage and also literally revisiting Flipside Records to perhaps finally begin a documentary he suggested years earlier. (How to save this failing, beloved old shop with an owner who doesn’t want to modernize, clean, etc.?) We also meet dying jazz photographer Herman Leonard, finally celebrated for his work after decades in semi-obscurity. And here’s film of This American Life contributor Starlee Kine, crippled by writer’s block. Or how about her boss Ira Glass who pursued an odd creative outlet while experiencing personal problems. And then there’s Judd Apatow, and David “Deadwood” Milch. So many tales of failure and illness — it started to bum me out!
There were many high-interest subjects in this film for me. I didn’t even mention Uncle Floyd (who I’ve interviewed, thank you), or a quick glimpse of the beautiful old WMCA building, and I could swear I heard someone mention Weckerman. But when all was said and done, I felt more like I’d sat through 90 minutes of therapy for Christopher Wilcha, instead of one real focused documentary for myself. So in tribute to him, I’m going to leave this review unfin
being underrated is overrated
Jack Silbert, curator