In 1999, a fresh philosophy grad, armed with nothing but a Sony Hi8 camera and his wits, documents his time finessing through corporate stoogery as the marketing assistant for a popular music distributor, trying to make out his own artistic dreams within the capitalist framework of corporate America. This film, The Target Shoots First, and its director, Chris Wilcha, make a splash at festivals like Slamdance and SXSW, but there fails to be a significant follow-up. One always wonders what happens to these new voices in cinema. Why don’t they get over that sophomore slump?
The thing is, for Wilcha, it isn’t for lack of trying. He pursues several passion projects, including documentaries with This American Life’s Ira Glass and Deadwood creator David Milch. However, none of these come to fruition, mostly because Wilcha doesn’t have the time nor the money to finish them. To support his family, Wilcha has become a seasoned commercial director instead. Now, he oversees advertisements for Miracle Whip and Dick’s Sporting Goods. He has, in a twisted way, fallen back into the kind of bureaucracy he once was lauded for incisively mocking. Sounds like the makings of a spiritual successor, but will he actually finish it?
Spoiler alert: he did, and it’s called Flipside. Despite a number of produced projects since Target in 2000, Wilcha’s latest is the first to continue in his voice, both literally and figuratively. Those familiar with Target will instantly recognize Wilcha’s sharp editing and engaging voiceover work, which are in full effect from Flipside’s opening moments. They’ll even recognize footage from Target itself, which Wilcha uses to orient viewers who missed out on his debut. In fact, those unfamiliar with the director, as well as those simply wondering where he has been, will be fully schooled on him, his history, and the many unfinished projects that make up the film’s wide-ranging skeleton.
One of those projects was a documentary, and additional social media marketing, for Flipside Records, the vinyl paradise of Wilcha’s youth and the home of his first job as a teenager. The independently owned, Jersey-based haven is still standing but just barely – sales are low, customers are scant, and the entire store is at risk of going under. Wilcha decides that his ticket back to artistic integrity is to use his skills to assist Flipside and its owner/his former boss, Dan Dondiego. However, not even the nostalgia of Flipside can initially bring Wilcha out of his stupor, leading to a decade-plus-long back and forth in which Wilcha reckons with nostalgia, creative limitations, and his own mortality.
Sprawling from the impetus of Flipside are the many projects Wilcha stitches together to create a larger portrait of what it means to be an artist for a living. The documentary’s opening moments aren’t even of Wilcha, but of legendary photographer Herman Leonard. As he oversees preparations for an exhibit of his work, he reflects on his career and the many hard truths he had to learn in order to become successful. Leonard’s warm candor makes for a sobering preamble to Wilcha’s own journey. Similarly, his vignette with Starlee Kine, a writer and radio producer who struggles with crippling writer’s block, distills the very stagnation Wilcha feels with each new project lost in the fold.
It’s a wide range of subjects and viewpoints, each perhaps more interesting individually than as a cohesive hole. However, each microstory acts as part of an elaborate but resonant puzzle, one that reminds you why Wilcha was the person originally entrusted with turning This American Life into a television show back in 2007. The beloved radio program is well-known for its quilt-like storytelling and Wilcha sensibilities are similar. His ability to pinpoint the pathos in his subjects, made possible by his level of access, makes each one a nugget of beauty, either hopeful or tragic.
However, it is of course Wilcha himself who anchors the entire piece, particularly with the growth he displays in embracing midlife. Wilcha’s wife and children appear in brief spurts, framing his home life not as a symptom of settling down but as a reward for growing up. Sure, he never managed to launch Flipside Records into the stratosphere, but he did get to watch his children grow up. He got to build a marriage. He got to get older and – if vaguely – wiser. In fact, as the messiness and inertia of Flipside rears its ugly head, Wilcha astutely observes his relationship with Flipside not as a chance to indulge in his past, but as a way to move toward the future. After all, he did finally finish a film. That’s character growth.
Flipside held its World Premiere as part of the TIFF Docs section at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently seeking distribution.
Director: Christopher Wilcha
Writers: Christopher Wilcha, Joe Beshenkovsky, and Adam Samuel Goldman
Rated: NR
Runtime: 92m
Wilcha's voice as a storyteller shines in 'Flipside,' an earnest, if wide-ranging, reckoning with midlife and creative stagnation.
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GVN Rating 8
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Larry Fried is a filmmaker, writer, and podcaster based in New Jersey. He is the host and creator of the podcast “My Favorite Movie is…,” a podcast dedicated to helping filmmakers make somebody’s next favorite movie. He is also the Visual Content Manager for Special Olympics New Jersey, an organization dedicated to competition and training opportunities for athletes with intellectual disabilities across the Garden State.