Flipside

Alternative perspective (against the grain of automatically raving reviews by insiders): this self-indulgent diary, from a luxury commercial ad spot videographer who wants to be a filmmaker, is the very definition of privilege. Only the media establishment (and pertaining wannabes/barnacles) are themselves desperate enough to cheer him on; whereas normies in any general audience will spend the whole running time rolling their eyes at this rich family guy's suburban midlife crisis, grappling with his abandonment of inconsequential subjects. But hey, he's got friends in high places, if you want to know how this diary video got so much money and attention thrown at it...

Lured out to California from the East Coast by movie director Judd Apatow, documentary filmmaker and family man Chris Wilcha makes a bonus short film used for the DVD but soon finds follow-up work scarce. After "selling out" doing TV commercials, Wilcha returns to his first love, going back to the unfinished documentaries he once had a passion for, left by the wayside or abandoned by circumstance. One of his documentaries is about Flipside Records in New Jersey, a record shop packed with vinyl, where Wilcha worked years ago and today finds remarkably unchanged. This treatise on growing up and letting go of our youthful dreams and endeavors gets off to a rocky start (Wilcha begins with footage from a would-be documentary on jazz photographer Herman Leonard that doesn't help us get our bearings). However, what follows is quite poignant and beautiful, a paean to the past that may still have a future. We meet a lot of interesting people in the course of this little gem, including Wilcha's own father, an avid collector of hotel soaps and shampoos...but not a hoarder! Worth-finding. *** from ****

As a filmmaker with many projects that I've had to put aside over the years so that I could attend to paying jobs, I can relate. But anyone who has tried to strike a balance between work that is fulfilling vs paying the bills can relate. The film weaves together seemingly disparate stories, from that of an ailing photographer to that of the Flipside record store and others, into a unified meditation on life, creativity and happiness (and regret).

Scenes with the filmmaker's parents are humorous as well, as he returns to his childhood home where he has stashed mementoes from the past 30 years ... finally cleaning out the old closets and letting things go.

I have to admit that I am guilty of being so attached to Wilcha's story ever since I saw his first documentary, "A Target Shoots First," in 1999 at the Viennale. For 25 years, I wondered where this guy-a promising documentary filmmaker-went. I stumbled upon his Instagram page a few years back, and I finally got to hear his moving story in full, and it was very well told!

This is a film about LIFE-so much about his story dealing with a midlife crisis and being brave in telling it in the first person. It is also about all the characters that were his friends, colleagues, collaborators, and even subjects of documentaries, making this story very relatable. There is always a sense of humor and wit amidst a philosophical subject, just like in his first one.

I don't know if I need to wait another 25 years until his next documentary (I hope not!). Just writing that last sentence feels like I may not have a full grasp of his message. However, I am uplifted today by this film-trying to let go of my old self at the right time and live life to the fullest.

I was lucky to see the premiere at TIFF.

What a wonderful film! It's messy in a good way, like real life, like real creation. At first it's not clear where it's going, but Chris Wilcha successfully lands the plane in a very satisfying way.

It's also surprisingly deep. It made me question how I'm spending my life, and the pull of practical decisions that make us get away from what we really want to be doing.

There are many threads in this film, and the level of difficulty is very high. I'm sure Wilcha's whiteboard has even more complex diagrams than Chris Nolan's. But the central unifying force of the film is Wilcha himself, and he's very authentic in a way that is easy to relate to.

His struggles are very common ones, even if we're not making films, and his relationship with his past and the passage of time hit me very hard, as a 41 year old.

If you have a chance to see this one, I highly recommend it! The scenes with David Milch is touching, and I now want to buy Herman Leonard's book of jazz photos.