Dig through the Past in This Exclusive Clip from Flipside

By Jacob Oller  |  May 31, 2024 | 10:00am
Movies Features documentaries
Dig through the Past in This Exclusive Clip from Flipside

Flipside, the latest doc from filmmaker Chris Wilcha (Target Shoots First) is finally bringing the artist’s personal reflection stateside. It looks at something seemingly antithetical to a documentarian’s life: letting things go. That desire to preserve is essential to a nonfiction filmmaker, but it can also encourage stagnation. Wilcha, who was also responsible for bringing NPR’s This American Life to the small screen, offers plenty of vulnerability in this film — including some behind-the-scenes moments with This American Life host Ira Glass — as he goes back to northern New Jersey, where he visits Flipside Records, the record store he worked at 20 years ago.

While others pop up over the course of the film (like TV writer David Milch and photographer Herman Leonard), Paste has an exclusive clip from the doc that is 100% Wilcha.

Check it out:

Returning to his childhood bedroom, Wilcha opens the nostalgia floodgates, revealing papers, boxes, records, matchbooks, a KISS beach blanket and a Spanish school assignment about rock stars.

“As far back as I can remember, I always had this feeling that the world was going to forget,” Wilcha narrates, “and that I was somehow in charge of remembering.” It’s a familiar impulse, and a familiar scene — who hasn’t rifled through all their embarrassing old belongings at their parents’ place? And then, at the end of the day, you realize that these personal notes and pop cultural time capsule components don’t really add up to much beyond what they mean to you. This bittersweetness seems to pervade Flipside, which is only natural for a creative navigating a midlife crisis by looking backwards.

Flipside hits theaters on May 31.

Jacob Oller is Movies Editor at Paste Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter at @jacoboller.

For all the latest movie news, reviews, lists and features, follow @PasteMovies.

 
Join the discussion...