arts // no. 8

How the other half lives

> ‘The Other Half’ film review

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

 

OOOO

lot of Canadian films were

hown at the Vancouver
International Film Festival this
year as part of the Canadian
Images series and the BC
Spotlight series. One of these
films, The Other Half, examines
how mental illness affects
people, and how it is treated.

The film follows Nicky
(Tom Cullen) who is depressed
because he lost his son in
an accident. Nicky meets a
woman named Emily (Tatiana
Maslany} who has bipolar
disorder. Along with Emily’s
parents, they go on a journey
to help her with her illness.

Before viewing the film,
audiences may notice that the
plot is similar to Silver Linings
Playbook, because Nicky and
Emily have similar issues to
Patrick and Tiffany, the main
characters of that film. The
Other Half is different because
it is presented as more of a
drama than a comedy.

This is Joey Klein’s first film
as a director, having worked as an
actor in many short films before
working on The Other Half.
Throughout the film, he
inserts jump cuts in all of

the conversations, giving
them a choppy, sped up feel.
For example, the scene in
which Emily goes through an
episode of her illness with loud
music in the background is
enhanced by the jump cuts.
Tom Cullen and Tatiana
Maslany have been dating
off-screen for four years now,
which is also similar to Bradley
Cooper’s work with Jennifer
Lawrence on Silver Linings
Playbook. How close the two
actors are in real life adds to
how they portray the people that
they play in the film, especially
in the scene where they
perform an improvised song.
The score of the film
accentuates the characters’
emotions very well; it features
an electronic sound that
underscores the grief that
Nicky feels because of his son’s
accident, and his sympathy
for Emily’s situation. During
the dance scenes, strobe lights
are used with the loud music
to add tension to the film.
While writing the film,
Joey Klein drew upon his own
experiences and did a lot of
research into mental illness. “It
was a slow burn,” said Maslany
at a Q&A at the film festival. To
prepare for the film, she also
researched mental illness by
interviewing a lot of people that

have bipolar disorder to learn
about their experiences with the
illness. The film focuses on both
Nicky’s depression and Emily’s
bipolar disorder by showing
how Nicky recovers from his
illness and the effects of Emily’s

illness and how it is treated. The
condition’s mental effects are
portrayed especially well in the
scene with the loud music. It
also shows how Emily’s illness
affects her parents and how
they respond to her episodes.

theotherpress.ca

 

While mental illness is
an important issue today, the
film shows how it impacts
people and how you can take
action to help them. The Other
Half opens in theaters soon.

Chairman of the Board: Doing the time-warp

> ‘Timeline’ board game review

Ed Appleby
Illustrator

 

hate trivia games. If there

was only some way I could
go back in time and fix the
problem with games requiring
routine knowledge...

Timeline (2010-16) is a series
of card games for two-eight
players designed by Frédéric
Henry and published by
Asmodee. In the game, players
pick five cards with historical
events from a deck, and each
player takes turn placing the
events in chronological order.

The first player who can play their

last card during a round wins.

Timeline does a lot to try to
solve the issue that plagues most
trivia based games: An imbalance
of knowledge among the players.
Players can be easily handicapped
by having more cards to place,
allowing the most inexperienced
players a fighting chance.

There are several card packs
representing various subjects,
from inventions, to people,

to Americana. | played the
Diversity version (2012), which
contained a good cross section
of most of the basic decks,
while not copying any cards.
This means that any decks can
be combined, preventing the
game from going stale due to
players memorizing the dates.

I found the game very simple
to learn and play. It requires an
equal amount of deduction and
guesswork, which evens out the
playing field for everyone who
doesn’t have a photographic
memory for dates. Like many
trivia games, there isn’t much
strategy to the gameplay, relying
more on rote memorization
and guesswork. I found the
game much better than most
trivia games I’ve played over
the years, but not as fun.

I would recommend this
game and it’s many iterations to
anyone who’s looking for a simple
and quick game to pass a little
time, but not for more advanced
gamers who prefer complex and
nuanced games where strategy
and psychology play a larger role.

Pause
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Illustration by Ed Appleby