The Year Between

By: Kelly Kearney

Hollywood has never shied away from tackling difficult topics to spark a conversation but rarely has it delivered a film with both heart and humor like Alex Heller’s The Year Between which stuck its landing at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Bipolar disorder, otherwise known as manic depression, is typically no laughing matter with highs sending people into tailspins of grandiosity, kleptomania, promiscuity and insomnia, partnered with what seems like neverending lows often too deep to climb out. It’s a disease that’s rarely, if ever, been presented in a way where we can laugh at the ridiculousness of it all while simultaneously crying over the pain it unleashes on everyone in its path. Having suffered from the disease herself and now staring it in the face with a new and much clearer perspective, first-time director Alex Heller invites viewers along on a ride through her mental illness in an edgy attempt to open minds and hearts to the humor hidden beneath the wreckage of a mental breakdown.

Clemence Miller (Alex Heller), a/k/a Clem, doesn’t play nice with others. It’s one of the many reasons why she gets the boot from her sophomore year at Western Illinois State. Sent home to the town she would rather see bombed than watch whiz by a car window, her family is less than thrilled by her sudden return; especially her mother – played by the incomparable J. Smith-Cameron (“Succession”). It’s the peace the Millers finally achieved after Clem went off to school that everyone fears will be flipped upside down when her unpredictable behaviors start to wreak havoc on their stable home.  Relegated to the basement now that her father (Steve Buscemi) turned her bedroom into his office, Clem relishes in feeling like an outcast in her own life. She’s not only a college failure, but she is also an imposition on her family – the people who take what she dishes out and choke it down with an exhausting smile. So, with bills piling up and a lot of free time on her hands, she sets out to find a job – one nobody, especially her sister, thinks she can keep. Their doubts come from experience. Clem is difficult (to put it mildly), impulsive, awkward and rude with a personality so large it tends to suffocate everyone in her life; most notably, her co-worker and her two teenage siblings Carla (Emily Robinson) and Neil (Wyatt Oleff). 

Carla, a high school Senior, spends most of her time obsessing about ACT scores while carving out her anti-Clem future with hopes of getting accepted into medical school. Carla also never misses an opportunity to shove that fact in her sister’s face. Also trying to survive hurricane Clemence is her Freshman-aged brother Neil who spends the majority of the film bouncing between avoiding Clem and cleaning up her messes like a stand-in father. Not that Clem’s dad is absent. In fact, just the contrary! The overly optimistic Math teacher is front and center and tossing out cheesy dad jokes and a never-ending supply of patience for a daughter who doesn’t often deserve it. 

Spending most of her time ignoring the lengths they go to, especially her mother (who in one instance bathroom brawled with her just to keep Clem safe) Smith-Cameron, adds both heart and humor to the film, portraying a woman who is more like her daughter than she cares to admit. She’s sarcastic and determined and when she can’t fix Clem she takes it upon herself to find a professional who will. Enter “The German” – an educated and empathetic therapist who Clem refuses to call by name like she’s some sort of fantasy villain because “it takes away her power.” After their initial meeting the woman easily makes a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and it’s not only because she shows up wearing her mother’s shoes and insulting the patients in the waiting room. Her symptoms are textbook. The diagnosis puts a name to what Clem has been dealing with her whole life and while there is no cure for this disease, there is a treatment to manage its debilitating symptoms. That in of itself can be a trial and error nightmare that Clem experiences to the extreme. From hair loss, forcing her to shave her head, to a lack of sexual desire and an all-consuming hunger that finds her fisting entire loaves of bread into her mouth at breakfast; finding the right medication feels worse than the illness itself. Desperation pushes Clem to her breaking point more than once in the film thanks to the side effects on top of her bouts of anger, lashing out, and general abrasive personality. She’s even caught stealing in front of her manager at a job that took a chance on her and then has the audacity to ask them to take her back since, according to nobody but her, she was the best employee they ever had. Clem approaches life like she does her disease – with a middle finger and a total lack of faith in the process. Her illness blinds her from the truth and gives her the permission to ditch the problem pills for some feel-good street drugs and a disappointing hook-up with a local dealer. The drugs send her deeper into her psychosis as things in the Miller household start to unravel until a shocking illness forces her to get back on the road to recovery. 

Buscemi and Smith-Cameron are no strangers to playing a married couple, this is the second time the two have partnered to parent in a difficult atmosphere; the first being the indie thriller Nancy. Their comfort with each other’s acting styles is evident from their first interaction. They do a wonderful job of tag-team delivering a certain calmness to the house that Clem is too selfish to appreciate. They also tend to be the targets of her verbal brutality and they give as good as they get without ever wavering in their love and support for her. The same cannot be said for Clem, who remains apathetic to their pain throughout the film, only finding clarity when she is faced with the loss she never imagined.

Instead of sitting in the heavy drama, the film leans into the comedic side of illness – almost pointing and laughing at the darkness bubbling underneath. More than once this film fills you with a desire to shake some sense into Clem and then hug her tightly because none of this is her fault. That’s the thing with mental illness, it’s like a parasite that hides in the shadows –feeding off every living being it comes in contact with. As much as it traumatizes the carrier, it rips their loved ones to shreds too and the Millers are not immune to Clem’s bug. 

Nobody dodges those gnashing teeth more than her mother and father, who have some of the best scenes in the film as we watch them attempt to navigate their daughter’s often abusive and hysterical whims with kindness and, yes, even sometimes brawls, to save her from herself. With a heavy dose of humor and heartbreak, the chemistry between J.Smith-Cameron and Alex Heller is tangible and relatable and speaks to the complicated dynamics that exist between mothers and daughters. It’s a love that never gives up even when both, at times, seem ready to throw in the towel. They are the heart of this film and together bring a lightness to some of the darkest moments.

As for Clem, Heller plays her with uncomfortable chaos that straddles the abrasive with an unsuspecting charm. She is infectious and makes it hard to feel anything but love for her and this semi-biographical coming-of-age story. She is a master at using humor to entice the viewer into laughing which most would feel is inappropriate. She never asks the audience to have sympathy for her and yet you can’t help but feel it and hope she pulls through. The bravery in laying herself bare to her real-life struggles is commendable and she takes on the role with a formidable presence. Never stealing all the thunder, she equally shares the screen with her supporting cast when a biographical comedy written by a comedian could easily find them shoved into the background. Even her co-workers at the retail store are given ample opportunity to shine, with everyone getting a few laughs in and mostly at Clem’s expense. Where the film might get bogged down in a single plot with not much of a forward trajectory or development, it excels in the hope that even at our worst, familial love will always be there with a safe basement and a fold-out bed to lay our freshly shaven heads on. Acceptance seems to be the message here and we see it come from a little sister who couldn’t make room for illness in her life who, by the end, winds up cherishing a painting Clem made for her after a night of playing dress-up and drunken bonding. We also see it in her mother, hurt and struggling with her own private battles, ignoring the fear and insults tossed her way and just accepting her daughter as this weirdly unique human. If the audience is shocked by some of the content (and they will be) there are enough bodily fluids, snot bubbles and bathroom scenes to turn a few eyes from the screen, the warmth of the Millers and the overall message will surely win them over.

When it comes to the direction Heller, who has little to no experience in front of or behind the camera, was smart enough to surround herself with veterans of the stage and screen to fill in any acting gaps her humor couldn’t cover. She does her best to imbue each breakdown scene with lighting and camera work that puts the audience into her mental state. In one particular party scene Clem takes drugs and falls into a hypnotic daze exhibited by the dizzying effects of a choppy edit and psychedelic close-ups. Bipolar disorder creeps its way into Clem’s life but it also makes its way into some of the directing choices that effectively set the mood for whenever the character is about to jump off the deep end and into her fractured mind. If there are missing components to this feature it is entertaining enough not to notice and that’s more than most first-time directors can wish for.

The Year Between is a total riot of emotions and demands your attention from the first opening scene to the closing credits. It is an impressive first project from a fresh new talent that film fans are sure to see more of in the years to come. If you love comedies that weave in heart – some broken and some healed – set an hour and a half aside to watch The Year Between.