The Year Between

The Year Between is a semi-autobiographical film written, directed and starring Alex Heller as a young woman who drops out of college after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She returns to her hometown and tries to cope with her condition while reconnecting with her family and friends. The film follows her ups and downs over the course of a year, showing how she deals with medication, therapy, relationships and self-discovery.

The film is a refreshing and realistic depiction of mental illness that avoids clichés and stereotypes. Heller gives a brave and nuanced performance as the protagonist, who is not defined by her disorder but by her personality, dreams and struggles. She is supported by a strong cast of actors who play her supportive parents, loyal sister, understanding boyfriend and quirky best friend. The film also has a warm and humorous tone that balances the drama and makes the characters more relatable.

The Year Between is a heartfelt and inspiring film that shows how one can overcome challenges and find happiness in life. It is a testament to the power of love, family and friendship in times of crisis.

A quirky tale about a girl with mental ilness, living at home with her family, basically going through the motions of dealing with all the highs and lows of everyday life.

The good: I love movies about misfits, people who dont belong, are out of place. This is such a story, and it starts out promising, because there is nothing more amusing to watch then someone behaving inappropiately ALL the time.

The bad: however, I was expecting a bit more drama and quite a bit more serious character development. Now the main character is stuck in a quirky stereotype.

Definitely not a bad movie, but somehow finally lacking in true drama.

The trailer did just enough to make this seem interesting. On top of being borderline bipolar myself, theTribeca laurel and Steve Buscemi sold it. Sadly this (The Family Stone Sans Christmas) missed the mark. The problem with these biopics is the writer often thinks no one else could possibly play the lead and they destroy the thing they worked so hard to build. A great lesson to young film makers out there, don't cast yourself if you're also going to direct it. The directing was also flawed, same old boring choices and settling for shocking blocking rather than getting actually creative with shots.

The dialogue however wasn't bad at all and at times there were a few laughs. I hope the writer will learn to hand off their next project to an actual director on the next outing.

The lead is so incredible (well the whole cast is honestly) but so realistic, this is very much like real life, and I was really blown away and how true it all felt. It can be a bit heavy of course, it's not a light hearted comedy, but it has a lot of humor in it for sure. For anyone who has gone through hell in college, struggled with mental illness or just the pain of life and family (so all of us) this really feels on point. The lead is so good in this, I never saw an actor acting for even a minute, I felt like this is a real life person going through it the entire time I was watching this movie.

As someone with bipolar disorder, I was shocked to see how negatively Clemence was portrayed in this movie. She appeared violent, irrational and dangerous. These are stereotypes of people with serious mental illnesses that need to stop. There are certainly highs and lows that can be unsafe, but they are not the full story. They touched on the struggles one has when trying to find the right medication mix. But there is a lot more to that story than they told. Getting stable is a horrific process and humiliating at times and very scary. This is the true story of the struggle and the courage of people with mental illness. Not that of people around them who judge and don't understand. And the preposterous promise that exercise and meditation can solve a mental disorder is total BS. It does not and never has been a solution.