For film festival veterans, there are several red flags in the plot description Reverse.
First, it’s a documentary in which the director turns the camera on himself, a move that can lead to a compellingly vulnerable exploration of the self, but more often results in relentlessly self-indulgent navel-gazing. Second, documentary filmmaker Christopher Wilcha looks back on his past from the abyss of a midlife crisis, a starting point ripe for wallowing. Third, his friend and collaborator in this effort is Judd Apatow, a contemporary comedy titan also known for his besieging runtimes and sentimental excesses. And yet, despite all the possible pitfalls that could plunge this image into the abyss of groaning solipsism, Reverse deftly jumps over each one and lands on something funny, thought-provoking and sublime.
Remarkably, Wilcha begins with a tone that might put more jaded viewers on edge, a real risk considering that its core demographic will likely be fellow anxious Gen Xers. But he thoughtfully broadens the focus by connecting his story of artistic ambition, capitalist compromise, and fear of mortality with other artists and creatives—including eccentric TV personality and TV legend David Milch (Deadwood, NYPD Blue). Together they form a patchwork that invites the audience to think about their own lives, but also about the comfort that we are not alone.
Be careful though. If you are not yet unsure about your choices, perhaps you should do so sometime Reverse is done with you.
What’s Reverse about?
Named after the record store in New Jersey where Wilcha worked as a teenager. Reverse are several stories at the same time. The first is about Wilcha, who was an emerging filmmaker twenty years ago thanks to his challenging documentary The target shoots first. There he had ridiculed his survival job at Columbia House to criticize the dour capitalism of his parents’ generation. This was a time when a “sellout” was a cultural crime, although rent is always due regardless of your principles.
Over the years, Wilcha made more documentaries, in collaboration with Ira Glass This American life‘s TV show (which earned him a Primetime Emmy in 2008) and taping a behind-the-scenes special for Apatow’s flop Funny people. However, his side hustle began to pay off, crowding out his passion projects to be forgotten on a shelf of dust-covered hard drives. And before he knew it, he was no longer the “damn man” documentary maker, but a commercial executive who feared he would become what he once detested most: reality does indeed bite.
Inside Reverse, Wilcha confronts his failures of not finishing these films by incorporating their images into this film. At first glance, their recording seems almost masochistic, as it reveals beautiful interviews and patient, evocative images, all of which encourage us to imagine what could have been. Then, it seems like these forgotten projects will be the fuel to complete the project about the titular record store, whose owner is an aging connoisseur whose aesthetic and jerky-smelling store don’t resonate with the modern vinyl collector. But as Wilcha weaves from one story to another, echoing his previous project hopping, he connects seemingly disparate stories into a common purpose.
Reverse is a story of failure and forgiveness.
One of those projects was a documentary about a legendary jazz photographer. Another was intended to follow radio producer/podcast star Starlee Kine as she faced writer’s block while writing a book. These countless hours of footage, recorded over decades, have taken on new meaning, even though the photograph is gone and Kine’s book was never published. They all speak to the challenges of an artistic calling. What drives you? What scares you? What’s stopping you from pursuing the dream project you so desperately wanted?
While this may sound like a subject rich in self-loathing, Wilcha is romantic in his respect for every element of the messiness that creation entails. He joins the struggle of these artists; The use of close-ups as his interviewees reveal their secrets reflects how close he came to them and how close he still feels to them. We are invited to metaphorically share the same atmosphere, full of panic and possibility. Like his subjects, his plot zigzags back and forth, reflecting on a past that is now nostalgic and sweet, musing on a present that seems impossible to hold on to, and ruminating on a future that we can’t really predict. And within it all, Wilcha finds humor and humanity – which may not be a surprise to fans of This American life.
Perhaps the funniest moment is when Judd Apatow gets a FaceTime call from Wilcha’s mother, who goes off on him for being the reason her son moved her grandchildren across the country to Los Angeles. It’s an alarmingly intimate moment, and Ms. Wilcha doesn’t hold back, not out of politeness or from her son’s camera point of view. Apatow takes the hits like a prizefighter, but they feel genuine sadness as they realize the powerful consequences that can come from deceptively simple decisions.
This is the heart of it Reverse. Wilcha examines not only his own life and weaknesses, but also those who have entrusted him with their stories. In these tapes he has found moments of loss, grace, bitterness and tenderness. He does not focus the story on himself, but he does expose his own subjectivity. Interviews are not shot in grim rooms with solid, wide shots. These people curl up on their couch, fall on battered office chairs or lean on a box of worn record covers. There is no feigned distance between him and his subjects, because they are connected. And Wilcha’s gentle story guides us through every interaction. However, his tone is more familiar than that of a tour guide, and we are not only the audience but also fellow passengers on this journey.
Reverse is about more than one person or one record store. It is about the search for the purpose of art and vocation. But more than that, this finished film is about forgiving yourself when things don’t go the way you planned, and making peace with the present by creating something new with the pieces of the failures of the past. It’s beautiful and inspiring, and it can provoke some astonishing self-reflection. Good luck.
Reverse was reviewed at its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.