Review of The Fallout (2021) by Kylofilm — 03 Feb 2022

The Fallout hit at a bunch of festivals in 2020 to wide acclaim by many critics, so it was one of the most anticipated films for me. Luckily it came to HBO Max today, so I watched it with high expectations but they were exceeded.

The Fallout is the most heartbreaking film I have seen in a long time as it deals with themes of depression and trauma in different ways. The film has a very uniquely intrinsic way of weaving through character emotions, without feeling cheesy or tiresome.

Vada is played by Jenna Ortega who I wish is eligible for the Actress Oscar this year cos she nailed it. Her trauma is justified and Jenna depicts this in the bets way she ever could. Maddie Ziegler was great too, but didnt have as much urgency as Jenna with her performance. The themes of this film are some of the most difficult to depict in a film such as school shootings, but Megan Park understood the asignment. She weaves inbetween the themes like a car through heavy traffic in rush hour, it was fantastic. The underlying theme of socialism was very interesting to me as it was done in a non-evident way. Social life is important to Mia (Maddie Ziegler), so this tragedy ruined it for her, but it worked in her favour cos she became best friends with Vada (Jenna Ortega). Vada is the opposite; a character who only has one friend before Mia, who has a passion to change lives which she later mentions. Its also a deconstruction of the Gen Z era, as it shows how social media can affect them. Tik Tok and Instagram are used in the film by the characters, especially Mia and Amelia (Vada sister). Mia is a very propular presence on Instagram, but beneath that, she is a nervously reserved person after the event which is where she connects with Vada.

Dialogue is hard to write for Gen Z characters as it needs to sound natural and has to sound relateable for them, and Megan Park writes with precision. She understands how teens speak in this day in age and how they use social media, then writes relatable dialogue which anyone can understand. One of the things that makes this film so special is the characters discovery of identity and happiness. Vada is very confused in her feelings as she discusses with her therapist, who guides her through her grief.

As somebody with depression and anxiety, I could relate to them in ways which I cant with other movies. They glide through emotions in amazing ways, which I feel often cos I never know how to feel myself. Vada describes how numb she feels, of which they depicted incredibly well through her tremors and facial movements.

I was crying on several occasions as the film feels very raw in its execution of trauma which most people have been through. The trauma I have been through is not nearly as bad as theirs, but it affected me in many ways of which were present here. I wanna speak about the ending as I feel it is very important for this review. SPOILER.

Vada finally starts to accept the past trauma, but as soon as the light is at the end of the tunnel, it fades again. She gets a notification from the news stating that 12 people were killed in the shooting which she was a survivor of. She starts crying and hyperventilating then it fades to white. This scene really hit me hard as I didnt expect it to happen, almost like a huge misdirect. Overall, The Fallout is another knockout to 2022's fatastic resume of films so far.