This review was originally part of our coverage for the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
“Every life is a trip,” says the legendary photographerHerman Leonardat the beginning ofChris Wilcha’s documentaryFlipside. “You are the captain of your boat.” In these opening moments,Flipsideseems like it’s going to explore the life of Leonard, yet Wilcha—who helped adaptThis American Lifefor television—zooms out even further, focusing on this statement by Leonard, and instead of looking at any one subject, decides to focus on larger ideas like the regrets we all have in life,how our dreams shift and evolve over the years, and how the unexpected can often be greater than what we expected.
Wilcha primarily puts himself at the center ofFlipside.He began as a young, ambitious filmmaker who never wanted to sellout, but then got an office job and made a film about it, entitledThe Target Shoots First. Decades after this first success, Wilcha has tried and failed to complete several other documentary ideas, making his living by directing commercials and becoming the “sellout” he never wanted to become—except for his stint onThis American Life.
Chris Wilcha, known for his work on “This American Life,” finds himself at a crossroads as he tries to rescue a New Jersey record store from closure. The documentary follows Wilcha as he revisits his past, from his early filmmaking days to his current struggles with unfulfilled projects and career shifts. Amidst the chaos of reviving the store, he confronts his own insecurities and the relentless passage of time.
One such failed documentary would’ve taken place at Flipside Records, a New Jersey record store that Wilcha worked at in high school. While the store was a popular hangout decades ago, it’s become less frequented over the years, filling up with overstock, and falling behind a bookstore across the street that also happens to sell records.
‘Flipside’ Shows How Fundamentally Our Lives Can Vary From Our Expectations
Yet this also isn’t necessarily the main focus ofFlipside, as Wilcha is more interested in exploring how what we want from life can wholly differ from what we eventually get and that there’s a beauty in loving what did come from your life.Wilcha tells this story through the various discarded projects that went nowhere, the ideas that were of interest to him over the years, and the people he found compelling. It’s fitting that Wilcha’s style often takes the approach ofIra GlassinThis American Life, as Glass also appears in the doc, as he prepares for a new stage show that involves him dancing—once again, another unexpected twist that he could’ve never seen coming.
Wilcha’s subjects on this matter are fascinating in how they speak to the doc’s larger ideas. Wilcha interviews Uncle Floyd, a frequent visitor at Flipside Records, who used to run his own TV show that eventually went nationwide. Wilcha at first makes it seem like Uncle Floyd has fallen into obscurity, except for an aging audience who remembers watching Floyd afterSaturday Night Live. Yet Wilcha shows that Floyd ended up becoming a reference in aDavid Bowiesong years later, making this man a part of pop culture history for years to come. Again, there’s no way Uncle Floyd could’ve imagined his show would actually lead to becoming part of a song from one of the most legendary singers of all time, but that speaks toFlipside’s point: the journey might often be expected, but the destination can be surprising and wonderful in the end.
Wilcha also interviewsJudd Apatow—who also helped produceFlipside—as Wilcha once made a documentary about Apatow’s 2009 film,Funny People, which only aired once and became little more than a special feature on the DVD. But Wilcha’s mother still holds a grudge against Apatow, as he hired Wilcha, which led to him moving across the country and taking her grandchildren away from her. While Apatow believed he was doing Wilcha a favor, we see the repercussions that taking a job had on Wilcha’s life. While it’s unclear if Wilcha’s mother is seriously anti-Apatow,it’s a funny aside that shows how every choice we make has a ripple effect on our future and who we will become.
But Wilcha’s time with Apatow also leads to some of the most intriguing subjects withinFlipside. Apatow introduces Wilcha toDavid Milch, the creator ofDeadwood, and we see the brilliance of Milch, even as he struggles with Alzheimer’s disease. Milch also tells Wilcha he should interview Leonard, which brings the entire documentary around full circle in a lovely way. Leonard knows that he’s dying at the age of 87, yet he can speak to the journey of life, the choices he wishes he had made, and the things he wishes he could still do. In one particularly moving scene,Lenny Kravitzcomes to visit Leonard and tells him they should go on vacation again together, as Kravitzcreates a hopeful future that they both know they’ll never be able to have.
‘Flipside’ Shows Us Life in Discarded Fragments
As we see more of Wilcha’s unused footage from the past few decades,Flipsidealmost reminds ofKristen Johnson’sCameraperson, as we get to learn about the documentary filmmaker via their work. Because of this,Flipsideis certainly shaggy, scrapped together from pieces that never were completed, but in telling this story of the directions life didn’t go in, it’s the sloppiness that makes it work in its own way.
In constructingFlipsideas a collection of disparate stories,Wilcha creates something more impactful that speaks to the larger problems that we all face in lifeand the complexity that makes it so interesting. As we see with Wilcha’s own story, or the stories we follow from Leonard, Glass, Milch, and others, there’s no telling where our lives will go, no matter how much we plan. In a way, Wilcha almost turns life into an experience akin to flipping through the used records at a local shop. You might have something in mind that you’re hoping to find, yet it’s the surprises that we flip through that make a real impact, that stop us in our tracks, and make us find the appreciation in the unexpected.
Flipsideshows us the record store owner who watches his shop fall apart, the photographer whose life is ending too soon, and all the other people whose lives haven’t gone the way they expected. But it’s Wilcha’s story that tells the cleanest version of his thesis. Sure, he could’ve followed the success ofThe Target Shoots Firstwith other successful documentaries, found fame and fortune, and become a major name in film. But without the unexpected directions life took him down, maybe he wouldn’t have a wife and kids—which are far more important to him than whatever his career could give him. Life is a fragmented collection of choices that lead us down paths we would’ve never expected. By capturingFlipsidein this way,Wilcha shows the weird, unbelievable nature of life and the surprises that make it such a beautiful mess.
Flipside is a hidden gem of a documentary that finds beauty in the most unexpected of places.
Flipsideis now playing in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes near you.
