By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Christopher Wilcha
Year: 2024
Running time: 92
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28575316/reference/
Chris says: “Chris Wilcha, who worked as a producer on the TV version of THIS AMERICAN LIFE has numerous unfinished projects scattered throughout his career. This documentary, ostensibly about the still-hanging-on, small-town New Jersey record store he worked in as a teen thirty-odd years ago, nearly ended up as another one, until he noticed a thread running through most of these partially-completed works: the passage of time and what it means to hold on to sentimental talismans from one’s past. Thus, FLIPSIDE resembles a tapestry of sorts, knitting together the record store’s proudly old-fashioned owner, Wilcha’s old boss Ira Glass, jazz-great photographer Herman Leonard, DEADWOOD creator David Milch and even cult kiddie-show host Uncle Floyd.
“As a fellow white, middle-aged, NPR listening music obsessive, I am clearly the target audience for this personal essay film and I can imagine some older and younger viewers resisting the urge to yell at Wilcha, ‘Get over it!’ And yet, I have to applaud him for this film’s continually expanding narrative—once you get past the self-indulgence of him examining his own life, you detect the interwoven connections between all these subjects and also how each one suggests an alternate but equally viable path to growing older and staying both motivated and stimulated. To retain a fondness for the past but not let it determine (nor hinder) the future is a philosophy he puts in the work to arrive at, and the effort often proves as edifying as the destination. 4 cats
“Screened at TIFF 2023 (World Premiere); no US distribution yet.”
Peg replies: “Just reviewed this for the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, a really good documentary, it goes places I didn’t expect it would and I ended up really liking it the more I watched (didn’t like it that much at first as I thought it was going to be self-indulgent, but it was ultimately a savvy and moving story).”